1. DON'T SMOKE THAT ZIGGURAT!
WAR STILL ROCKING CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
Micah Garen writes for the Baghdad Bulletin, a new English-language
independent publication monitoring the reconstruction effort in Iraq, that
looting continues at archaeological sites around the country. "The
well-documented looting of the Iraqi National Museum has received
considerable press attention. Yet the continued looting at archaeological
sites, particularly the important Sumerian and Old Babylonian sites south
of Diwaniya, seems to have drawn only moderate attention and even less
concern from coalition forces... Important sites such as Isin, Umma, Umma
Akrab and Larsa were turned into Swiss cheese by teams of looters,
reportedly up to 200 to 300 strong at times." US Army Col. John Malay, who
commands the Marine forces in Diwaniya, admitted that the problem is not a
priority. "People being killed is the number one priority, not guarding
archaeological sites," he told Baghdad Bulletin.

Meanwhile, archaeologists are being barred from sites which have been
secured by US troops. Austrian archaeologist Helga Trankwalder protested
that for first time in thirty years she was prevented from going into
Babylon by Marines stationed at the gate. She is harshly critical of US
forces for their lack of foresight and planning in protecting Iraq's
relics. "The question of responsibility of all this will be raised in
Europe. We will not stop," she said.

Specialists insist the Pentagon was provided the necessary information to
protect the archaeological sites around Iraq. McGuire Gibson from the
Oriental Institute in Chicago met with Pentagon planners prior to the war,
providing them with a detailed CD that listed all of Iraq's archaeological
sites with grid coordinates. He also explained the importance of protecting
these sites from looting both before and after the war, and his concerns
were published in National Geographic magazine in March of 2003. "Yet,"
writes Baghdad Bulletin, "this information does not seem to have made it
into the field, and was never made a priority by the coalition."

Coalition forces apparently would like to see the issue disappear. Italian
Ambassador Pietro Cordone, the newly appointed Iraqi Cultural Minister, has
been avoiding a press eager for answers. In response to a request for an
interview, his office told Baghdad Bulletin that Ambassador Cordone did not
wish to speak about the looting, but would be happy to talk about the
future. In the US, two Congressman have introduced a bi-partisan bill
called the Iraqi Cultural Heritage Act, which would allow the president to
act to save the cultural heritage of a country not party to the 1970 UNESCO
convention prohibiting illicit trade in cultural property. The sanctions
against Iraq made it impossible for Iraq to apply for protection under the
UNESCO convention.

A UNESCO mission made up of international archaeologists is now scheduled
to visit Iraq, the second UNESCO mission to visit Iraq in the past two
months. It is not clear if the mission will be able survey the heavily
looted sites in the south due to security concerns. "But," concludes
Baghdad Bulletin, "as the political wheels turn, the looting continues."

Yigal Schleifer of the Israel bi-weekly Jerusalem Report toured Iraq
shortly after the fall of Saddam, visiting ancient Mesopotamian sites as
well as the tombs of the Jewish prophets Ezra and Ezekiel. His feature
story in the June 16 issue relates both how Saddam exploited Iraq's
5,000-year history and how this history is being plundered in the current
war and lawlessness. At the ruins of Babylon, an hour's drive south of
Baghdad, ancient structures were partially reconstructed by the Saddam
regime, with new bricks added in 1987 reading, "Rebuilt in the age of
Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq and protector of civilizations, the
descendant of Nebuchadnezzar." The director of the site, Muhammed Taber
al-Kafiy, told Schleifer: "UNESCO was against this. Iraqi archaeologists
were against this, but they couldn't say anything about it, because they
would be put in jail." Now the US has set up military bases at both the
Babylon and Nimrud sites--which have reduced the looting, but have impacts
of their own.

At Kifl, also just south of Baghdad, Schleifer visited the tomb of the Old
Testament prophet Ezekiel, in a 750-year-old shrine still bearing Hebrew
inscriptions and glass-inlaid floral designs. Revered by Jews and Muslims
alike, the tomb is guarded by a local Muslim family which was appointed
stewardship of the site by the Ottoman sultan generations ago. The
caretaker pointed out how a house adjacent to the tomb was partially
destroyed by a missile during the recent air campaign--as were several
other homes in Kifl. One local man showed Schleifer a deep gash in his leg
and told how his two-year-old son was killed when a missile hit their home.
The tomb itself was narrowly spared damage.

At Baghdad's Jewish cemetery, the local caretaker, an 83-year-old Muslim
named Mohammed Fadel Rhida, pointed out how both Saddam and the US forces
had desecrated the site. He showed Schleifer some 100 graves that were
demolished by the Iraqi army, which placed artillery in the cemetery. He
also indicated a large section of the cemetery's wall that had been knocked
down by a US tank searching for Iraqi resistance fighters. A number of
tombstones have also been smashed by looters in the post-Saddam chaos.
Indicating the smashed graves, Rhida asked Schleifer, "Is this not haram?",
the Arabic word for "forbidden."

2. "IRAQI NATIONAL RESISTANCE" EMERGES
Bomb and grenade ambushes and hostile fire June 26 killed two US soldiers
and two Iraqi civilians, signaling increased resistance in Iraq despite
Washington's claims to be mopping up opposition. In one attack, a member of
a US special operations force was killed and eight injured by hostile fire
southwest of Baghdad. That same day, a bomb exploded on the Baghdad airport
road, killing a US soldier and injuring another. The road, heavily used by
US forces, has been the scene of several attacks using trip wires dangling
from overpasses or grenades tossed from bridges.

In another ambush, assailants reportedly hurled grenades at a US-escorted
Iraqi civilian convoy in west Baghdad, killing two Iraqi employees of the
national electricity
authority. One day earlier, a Marine was killed while responding to an
ambush in which three other Americans were wounded. US military spokesman
Maj. William Thurmond, played down the new violence as a "spike" and not a
trend, and is likely a response to recent US raids on Baath Party
strongholds. "There have been more attacks recently, but it's probably
premature to say this is part of a pattern," Thurmond said. "We've kicked
open the nests of some of these bad guys."

While the US blames the attacks on isolated remnants of Saddam Hussein's
regime, claiming there is no organized resistance, Qatar's al-Jazeera TV,
aired statements from two previously unknown groups urging assaults on
US-led forces in Iraq. One, by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen of the
Victorious Sect, claimed responsibility for recent attacks and promised
more. The other, by the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Iraq,
called for "revenge" against the US.

Pentagon officials also report that two US soldiers apparently have been
abducted. The men and their Humvee were stationed at an observation post
near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, when they went noticed missing.
In another incident June 26, a US Army truck sat smoldering at the side of
a highway 20 miles south of Baghdad, apparently struck by a
rocket-propelled grenade. A day earlier, attackers threw grenades from a
Baghdad overpass onto a passing convoy of Army Humvees, said a Pentagon
source. There were no serious injuries reported.

The same day, militants ambushed Marines in Hillah, 45 miles south of
Baghdad, wounding three. Later, one Marine was killed and two were wounded
when their vehicle, part of a quick-reaction force sent in response to the
Hillah ambush, rolled over on the road's shoulder.

On June 24, violence in the southern Iraqi town of Majar al-Kabir killed
six British soldiers and wounded eight British paratroopers. The British
military said the violence probably was sparked when the paratroopers
entered the town, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, during a "routine joint
patrol" with local militias. Townspeople apparently thought the patrol was
going to search for weapons, a source of local resentment. Soldiers
reportedly used dogs in the searches and entered women's bedrooms in
defiance of Muslim sensibilities.

British forces in Iraq have been reduced to 15,500 from 45,000. The US has
brought home some 130,000 troops from the region, with 146,000 remaining.
The latest killings raised the US death toll to 196 since the start of the
war on March 20. At least 20 US troops have died as the result of hostile
fire since major combat was declared over in May. When the bodies of the
two disappeared GIs were found north of Baghdad June 29, this brought the
total of US dead since the start of the Iraq campaign to 200. (AP, June 26,
29)

In a bizarre musical reprise from the film "Apocalypse Now," US helicopters
blasted Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" as troops from the First Battalion
of the 124th Infantry Regiment rammed vehicles into metal gates and
hundreds of soldiers raided houses in the western city of Ramadi June 21 as
part of a drive to halt attacks on US forces, code-named Operation Desert
Scorpion. A US military spokesman said that 90 Desert Scorpion raids had
captured 540 Iraqis. US troops wrote ID numbers on the arms of the
detainees in black marker.

As the violence escalated, another previously unknown group, the Iraqi
National Front of Fedayeen, vowed to step up resistance until US forces
leave Iraq. A spokesman appeared on Lebanon's LBC TV, his face hidden in a
red-and-white headscarf, said: "If they want their soldiers to be safe,
they must leave our pure land." The militant, flanked by three masked men
with weapons, disavowed any link to Saddam Hussein.

Officials in Washington said Saddam's captured former secretary Abid Hamid
Mahmud al-Tikriti had told interrogators the deposed dictator and his two
sons are alive and in Iraq. Paul Bremer, US administrator of Iraq, said the
issue of Saddam's fate needed to be resolved, because uncertainty
emboldened supporters of the toppled regime. "It gives them an ability to
say Saddam is still alive, he's coming back, and we're coming back, and
what that does is it disinclines people who might otherwise want to
cooperate with us from cooperating with us," Bremer told reporters on a
visit to neighboring Jordan.

While US officials blame the attacks on Saddam loyalists, the Shi'ites who
were bitterly persecuted by Saddam continue to protest against the US
presence in Iraq. "The Americans are occupiers and aggressors," said Sayyid
Ali, one of about 2,000 Shi'ites who protested outside the vast palace
compound in Baghdad now used by Iraq's US-led administration. "They were
supposed to free us from the oppressor, now they are only occupying us," he
said. "We want to form a national government. "We want freedom and
justice." (Reuters, June 21)

When Sen. Richard Luagr, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
arrived in Iraq for a visit with Paul Bremer June 23, he told reporters
that US forces will have to occupy the country for a long time--"as much as
five years.'' (AP, June 23)

"I believe we are seeing the beginning of an Iraqi national resistance,
which will spread out and escalate throughout Iraq," said Mohammed Aziz
Shukri, a professor of international law at Damascus University told
Lebanon's Daily Star in response to the attacks. Juan Cole, professor of
history at the University of Michigan and Mideast specialist, added that
"some form of forceful resistance" will continue by the more radical Sunnis
in Iraq. "The Sunni Arabs close to the former regime, as well as Sunni
fundamentalists inside and out of Iraq, have everything to lose in an
American-dominated, Shiite-majority, democratic Iraq. So, it is entirely
natural that they should continue to resist the US." Said Nizar Hamzeh,
professor of politics at the American University of Beirut: "The resistance
is limited at the moment to Saddam loyalists and Sunni militants who may be
sympathetic to Al-Qaeda. But once the resistance becomes more influential
and strengthens, I expect it to gather support among Arabs and draw
manpower from around the Arab world."
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3. U.S. TROOPS ADMIT SHOOTING IRAQI CIVILIANS
The UK Mirror reported June 19 that US troops admitted they routinely gun
down Iraqi civilians--some of whom are entirely innocent. "You can't
distinguish between who's trying to kill you and who's not," said Sgt.
John Meadows. "Like, the only way to get through shit like that was to
concentrate on getting through it by killing as many people as you can,
people you know are trying to kill you. Killing them first and getting
home." Added Cpl. Michael Richardson: "There was no dilemma when it came to
shooting people who were not in uniform, I just pulled the trigger."
Richardson also admitted shooting injured fighters and leaving them to die.
"Shit, I didn't help any of them. I wouldn't help the fuckers. There were
some you let die. And there were some you double-tapped." Richardson said
the 9-11 attacks gave him his motivation to fight Iraqis. "There's a
picture of the World Trade Center hanging up by my bed and I keep
one in my flak jacket. Every time I feel sorry for these people I look at
that. I think, 'They hit us at home and, now, it's our turn.' I don't want
to say payback but, you know, it's pretty much payback." (UK Mirror, June
19)

The web site Iraq Body Count continues to monitor world press reports to
arrive at a daily update of the total Iraqi civilian dead. Each incident is
listed separately, noting the location, number dead, weaponry used and
media source. At press time, the minimum estimate stands at 6,011 and the
maximum at 7,653.
[top]

4. U.S. TROOP IN WAR CRIME INQUIRY
US Marines Gunnery Sgt. Gus Covarrubias is under investigation for possible
war crimes committed in Iraq based on statements he made to his hometown
newspaper. Covarrubias told the Las Vegas Review-Journal how he had hunted
down and shot two Iraqi soldiers after a firefight. "A preliminary inquiry
has been initiated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to examine
the circumstances surrounding the statements made by Gunnery Sergeant
Covarrubias," the US military statement said. "The preliminary inquiry will
determine if the actions described by Gunnery Sergeant Covarrubias during
combat operations met the established rules of engagement and complied with
the law of war."

In the interview published on April 25, Sgt. Covarrubias said he was
searching for the source of a grenade attack April 8 and found an Iraqi
soldier in a nearby house with a grenade launcher. He told the paper he
ordered the man to stop and to turn around. "I went behind him and shot him
in the back of the head--twice," he was quoted as saying.

He said he saw another Iraqi soldier trying to escape and also shot
him--then took their ID cards, a rifle and one of their berets for
souvenirs. He said the killings were "justice", but the paper quoted a
military expert as saying the first one could have been a war crime. (The
Age, Australia, May 2)
[top]

5. U.S. SPOOK FIRM TO TRAIN NEW IRAQI ARMY
The Pentagon has awarded a $48-million contract to train the nucleus of a
new Iraqi army to the Vinnell Corporation, a US Fairfax, VA-based firm
which also trains the Saudi National Guard. The company, a subsidiary of
the US aerospace firm Northrop Grumman, said on its website it was hiring
former US army and marine officers to train light infantry battalions and
combat service support units for the new Iraqi army. The new army is
expected to reach 12,000 troops within a year and swell to 40,000 within
two years. Iraq's former standing army of some 400,000 troops was disbanded
after US-led forces ousted the ruling Baath Party regime in April. Ten of
the company's employees--two Filipinos and eight US citizens--were among
those killed in May 12 suicide attacks on compounds for foreign workers in
Riyadh. (AFP, Juine 26)

6. NETANYAHU: MOSUL-HAIFA PIPELINE "NOT A PIPEDREAM"
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expects an oil pipeline
from Iraq to Israel to be reopened in the near future after being closed
when Israel became a state in 1948. "It won't be long when you will see
Iraqi oil flowing to Haifa," the Israeli port city, Netanyahu told a group
of British investors. "It is just a matter of time until the pipleline is
reconstituted and Iraqi oil will flow to the Mediterranean... It's not a
pipe-dream." In April, a source at Israel's National Infrastructure
Ministry told Reuters Israel and Jordan would hold talks on reopening the
pipeline, which Israel believes would lower fuel costs by 25%. The source
said that the Israeli section of the pipeline was still in good condition.
Jordanian officials denied they would meet Israeli officials on the issue.
(Haaretz, June 20)

But Iraq's US-appointed de facto oil minister Thamir Ghadhban said the
Mosul-Haifa has fallen into ruin within Iraq, with parts recycled for
pumping water. "The pipeline does not exist anymore," Ghadhban told
reporters. He also said any decision to sell oil to Israel would be the
responsibility of an Iraqi authority or government. "This is a political
decision which is not of my affair and has to be taken by politicians."
Ghadhban denied giving an interview to the Israeli daily Ma'ariv at a
recent economic meeting in Jordan. The paper said Baghdad would not use the
old pipeline to sell oil to Israel, attributing the statement to Ghadhban.
(Haaretz, June 24)

7. WHAT DID WOLFOWITZ REALLY SAY?
On June 4, the UK Guardian's electronic edition reported that US deputy
defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, asked why nuclear-capable North Korea was
being treated differently from Iraq, replied: "Let's look at it simply. The
most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that
economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of
oil." The following day, the Guardian ran a correction, stating that the
remarks had been taken out of context. According to the US Defense
Department website, what Wolfowitz really said was: "The ... difference
between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options
with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North
Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I
believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with
North Korea is very different from that with Iraq."

Concluded the Guardian: "The sense was clearly that the US had no economic
options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic
value of the oil motivated the war."

8. MARSH ARAB GUERILLAS THREATEN RESISTANCE
In Iraq's southern marshlands, guerrillas who resisted Saddam Hussein's
regime for years say they fear the US-led occupation wants to take away
their weapons so that foreign troops can remain Iraq for years to come.
Al-Sayyid Kadum al-Hashimi, a leader in the town of Majar al-Kabir, south
of Amara, where six British soldiers were killed June 24, said: "It is the
belief of people here, and it is believed by all other Iraqis, that the
British want to disarm us so they can stay for a long time." Abu Hatem
Qarim Mahoud, famed in Iraq as a guerrilla leader and known as the "lord of
the marshes," said he hoped an agreement could be reached with the
occupation forces about weapons. But he warned that "any program for
reconstruction without an interim Iraqi government will fail." Further
fighting around Amara, which is controlled by Abu Hatem, will be
embarrassing for the US because the guerrillas cannot be portrayed as
remnants of Saddam's regime. "Ours is the only city which liberated itself
through its own efforts," said Ali al-Atiyah, one of Abu Hatem's aides.
Some guerrillas are more frank than their own leader on how they see the
future. "We will put an end to this occupation with our weapons," said
Maythem al-Mohammed Dawi, who had been fighting in the marshes since 1998.
"If we give up our arms how can we fight them?"

Abu Hatem's fighters--said to number 8,000--continued to resist Saddam even
after the dictator started draining the marshlands to deprive the guerillas
of cover. With the swamps destroyed, they dug a network of tunnels and
bunkers in the dry beds. After serving in the Iraqi army as a
non-commissioned officer, Aub Hatem was jailed in 1980 for seven years and
on his release started his guerrilla organization called Hizbollah
(unrelated to the Lebanese group). He captured Amara on April 7, two days
before the fall of Baghdad--but then said he received a call on his
satellite phone from a CIA agent in Kuwait whom he called Dawud. He said:
"When we were speaking, he gave me the order to leave the city within one
hour." Abu Hatem then called Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi writer living in
Washington, asking him to use his influence to try to get the order
reversed. Amara remains under Abu Hatem's control, and life in the city is
much more normal than elsewhere in Iraq, with no curfew. When the British
soldiers were killed in Majar al-Kabir on Tuesday, Abu Hatem was in Baghdad
meeting with Paul Bremer, leader of the US administration in Iraq. Abu
Hatem reportedly rushed back to Majar al-Kabir, where local leaders told
him they feared the confiscation of weapons meant that the US and UK would
occupy Iraq for years. (UK Independent, June 27)

9. "KURDICIZATION" THREATENS TURKOMANS
For nearly 30 years, Saddam Hussein implemented a policy of "Arabization"
in much of northern Iraq, bringing thousands of Arabs from southern and
central Iraq to the oil-rich northern region and expelling non-Arab
minorities--Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians. Now, following the fall of
Saddam's regime, there is a campaign to "Kurdicize" towns like Kirkuk and
Tuz Khurmatu, where over half the population is Turkoman.

The two main Kurdish parties, the Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have
brought thousands of Kurdish families from the northern Kurdish autonomous
zone to ethnically-mixed towns like Kirkuk that were under Saddam's control
until he was ousted. Occupation authorities have insisted that Kirkuk's
city council consist of Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians--two members
each. But there already have been bloody clashes between Kurds and Arabs
and threats exchanged between Kurds and Turkomans. Writes Nermeen al-Mufti
for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting: "Even the walls of Kirkuk,
covered in Kurdish banners and names now, have begun to speak Kurdish."

Turkomans are Iraq's third largest ethnic group after Arabs and Kurds.
Originally from Central Asia, they began settling in Iraq in a long
migration that spanned centuries. They have ruled the country six times
since establishing their first state in northern Iraq around 600 BC.

The exact number of Turkomans today is contested by Kurdish leaders, who
call Kirkuk the major city of a Kurdish region. A 1957 figure of 590,000
Turkomans in an overall population of six million, this would suggest that
Iraq today has some two million Turkomans. Some half of them live on the
fringe of the Kurdish mountains, in the provinces of Mosul, Erbil and
Kirkuk.

The 1970s, the non-Arab peoples of northern Iraq were particular targets of
Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party, which stressed the primacy of Arabs.
Turkomans and Kurds especially were victims of the campaign to "Arabize"
the oil-rich regions where they are a majority. Thousands of villages were
destroyed and their inhabitants expelled or forcibly transferred to remote
areas of southern Iraq. Many of the limited cultural rights granted
Turkomans--Turkish language education in primary schools, daily radio and
television broadcasts and a newspaper--were taken away as early as 1972.

Human Rights Watch documented various means Saddam's regime used to
pressure on Kurdish, Turkoman and Assyrian families to abandon their homes.
These included being compelled to change ethnicity (known as "nationality
correction"), forced recruitment into the Ba'ath Party and "volunteer"
paramilitary units, pressure on families with relatives in the Kurdish
autonomous zone, and attempts to recruit informers.

"Nationality correction," formally introduced in 1997, required members of
ethnic groups residing in Kirkuk, Khaniqin, Makhmour, Sinjar, Tuz Khormatu
and other districts to relinquish their Kurdish, Turkoman, or Assyrian
identities and to register officially as Arabs. Unless they did so, they
were not permitted to work--even in agriculture--or buy or build a house.
Those who refused were expelled from their homes.

When Kirkuk was liberated from Saddam's rule in April, Kurdish peshmerga
militias arrived, calling the city the heart of Kurdistan. The Turkomans
have already established a local TV and radio station and a number of trade
unions. Muzaffar Arsalan, founder of the Iraqi Turkoman National Front, an
umbrella group of Turkoman parties established in exile, says he has ruled
out armed struggle to defend the community's rights. "We have insisted on
peaceful opposition right from the beginning," he said in an interview. "We
will obtain our rights with the support of our people. Nothing can be
gained without popular support. Saddam Hussein in the prime example of
this. He had everything but popular support. This resulted in his downfall."

Human Rights Watch is urging the occupation forces to take measures to
defend minority rights--including preservation of all records establishing
the ethnicity and place of origin of displaced Iraqis and establishment of
a public register of all Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians forcibly expelled
from their homes Arsalan also demands scrutiny of official documents to
determine land rights in contested areas. "The issue can be resolved by
referring to the facts," he said. "There is no need for arms, terror or
intimidation. All Iraqis should be granted their rights under the
constitution."

10. SYRIA DEMANDS EXPLANATION IN BORDER SKIRMISH
The Syrian government is still demanding an explanation from the US a week
after five of its border guards were detained in a US special forces raid
on the frontier with Iraq. The foreign ministry has yet to receive any
response to a formal protest it lodged with US ambassador Theodore Kattouf
on June 19, the official SANA news agency said June 25. The ministry
demanded "an explanation from the US government...and the return of the
wounded soldiers for treatment in Syria in order to avoid any
misunderstanding that might lead to an escalation neither side wants," the
SANA statement said. "The ministry is still waiting."

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that no wanted Iraqi
officials were found in the June 19 raid by Task Force 20, a secret unit
set up to hunt down senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime. Other US
officials said five Syrian border guards were held in a subsequent clash,
three of whom were wounded. They admitted that the raid may even have taken
place on Syrian territory.

But Rumsfeld defended the intelligence that prompted the attack against
what he called a suspicious convoy exiting Iraq, insisting Washington was
in contact with Damascus over the incident. (AFP, June 26)

11. WILL U.S. EXPLOIT IRAN PROTESTS?
Authorities say up to 4,000 people were arrested in protests in Iran
between June 10 and 20. The demonstrations, launched in reaction to the
government's university privatization plan on June 10, later turned into an
a more general campaign for greater democracy. Prosecutor General Ayatollah
Abdulnabi Namazi stated that 4,000 people were arrested nationwide, 2,000
of whom have now been released. Namazi stated that of the 800 arrested in
the capital, Tehran, only a small number were students, and that most of
them were "hooligans." The Union Reinforcement Bureau, the largest
reformist student group, indicated that number of student arrests is much
more than that declared by the authorities. (Zaman, Turkey, June 20)

The protests come just as Iran is facing international pressure over its
nuclear program--and not only from Bush, but also from Mohammad el-Baradei,
head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who urged Iran
to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow foreign inspections of its
nuclear facilities. In his annual report to the IAEA's board of governors
in Vienna, el-Baradei said Iran "failed" to report certain materials and
activities. Meanwhile, EU ministers meeting in Luxemburg issued a statement
expressing skepticism about the stated peaceful aims of Iran's nuclear
program. "The nature of some aspects of this program raises serious
concern," the statement said. (New York Sun, June 17)

Dissident leaders in Iran seem cognizant of the threat that their movement
could be exploited by the US. A letter signed by over 250 dissidents and
published in the pro-reformist newspaper Yas-e-nou accused Iran's ruling
mullahs and their doctrine of "wilayat al-faqih" (rule by clerics) of being
contrary to the true spirit of Islam: "Considering individuals to be in the
position of a divinity and absolute power...is open polytheism [in
contradiction to] almighty God, and blatant oppression of human dignity.
People [and their elected leaders] have the right to supervise fully their
rulers, criticize them, and remove them from power if they are not
satisfied." The statement also declared support for an earlier letter
issued by parliamentarians in May, calling on President Khatami to accept
reform before "the whole establishment and the country's independence and
territorial integrity are jeopardized." (New York Sun, June 17)

As if to demonstrate how foreign powers could exploit the Iran unrest,
Pentagon advisor Richard Perle told the German Council on Foreign
Relations: "There may be regime change in Iran because the regime in Iran
is miserably unpopular. Young Iranians will find better uses for their
limited resources than building nuclear power in a country so rich in oil.
We can already see signs that Iranians...would like to see regime change.
They should be encouraged." (New York Sun, June 17)

Militant protests against the Tehran regime have also broken out among
Iranian exiles in France, where Maryam Rajavi, a leader of the Mujahedeen
Khalq, an armed Iranian opposition group based in Iraq, has been
imprisoned. Several followers have launched hunger strikes to demand his
release, and eight have set themselves ablaze. Two women--one in London and
one in Paris--died of their burns. Rajavi and 150 others were detained in a
June 17 raid by French police. Eleven members were imprisoned on
terrorism-related charges. Founded in 1965 as a guerrilla group fighting
the Iranian monarchy, the Mujahedeen Khalq added a political arm in exile
in 1981, then built its army in Saddam's Iraq. Washington and the European
Union call it a terrorist
organization. France's intelligence agency, the DST, calls the organization
a personality cult around Maryam Rajavi--"president-elect" of a future
Iran--and her co-leader husband Massoud, still said to be in Iraq. Maryam
Rajavi, who left Iraq in April, is under investigation for "membership in a
criminal organization linked to a terrorist enterprise" and for financing
terrorism. The DST claims the group planned attacks against Iranian
diplomatic missions in Europe. Mujahedeen Khalq denies the charges, saying
the organization abides by the law in countries outside Iran. "What France
is doing is the result of a dirty deal with the mullahs at a time when the
Iranian regime is on the ropes," said spokesman Shain Gobadi. (AP, June 27)

12. DID GOD ORDER BUSH TO ATTACK IRAQ?
On June 25, the Israeli daily Haartez quoted Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas as saying that in their recent meeting President George Bush
told him: "God told me to strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he
instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to
solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if
not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

THE PALESTINE FRONT

1. CONDI, RAND DISS APARTHEID WALL
US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice on June 29 criticized the
Israeli government's ongoing construction of a "separation barrier," or
security fence between Israel and the West Bank. After a meeting with
Israeli ministers, Rice said Washington saw the wall's construction as
"problematic" because "it would create a fait accompli" and might be
considered as an intention to define an international border between the
two future states. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said
the fence "had no political significance," and that it was only being built
because of "security concerns." He stressed that he wouldn't back down on
the matter, even if it caused a disagreement with Washington. (AFP, June 29)

Rice requested of Sharon that the route of the fence be reconsidered with
"greater sensitivity." Ha'aretz noted that Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom "also spoke about the continuing incitement in the Palestinian
press, and reminded Rice that a Palestinian newspaper had recently called
her 'the black widow.' Rice said that she had been told of the epithet and
found it shocking ."(Ha'aretz, June 30)

Aluf Benn, writing in Ha'aretz, had the following observation: "Rice may
have read assessment of the situation by the experts at Rand, one of the
most important strategic research institutes in the US, in the latest issue
of the Atlantic Monthly, which put the
separation fence at the top of the list of global security problems that
are not getting sufficient attention. The author warned that building the
fence will lead to an escalation of Palestinian terror, in the territories
and abroad." (Ha'aretz, June 30)

If Israel completes the fence according to its current plan, less than 50%
of the West Bank will be left for the creation of a Palestinian state. US
President George Bush and Tony Blair have also criticized the fence. "We
are interested in progress in the peace process that will render the
fence's security arrangements unnecessary," Blair said at the recent Aqaba
summit. (Ha'aretz, June 17)

A UN official also criticized the wall. "It potentially separates tens of
thousands of Palestinians from their agricultural lands, wells, markets,
schools, health clinics and hospitals," said Undersecretary-General for
Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast to the Security Council on Friday,
June 14. "By the end of July, 12,000 Palestinians in 15 villages could find
themselves wedged between the wall and the Green Line," he said. "A further
138,000 Palestinians in 16 localities could be surrounded on three sides by
the wall." (AP, June 14)

The fence has also been criticized, at long last, by the official
Palestinian leadership. Edward F. Sheehan, in the New York Review of Books,
reports having the following exchange with Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat and Prime Minister Abu Mazen:

"I described my visit to Qalqilya and asked whether the Israeli fence could
be accepted as the border of a Palestinian state.

"Abu Mazen: Impossible.

"Arafat: The Israelis are controlling our water and diverting it to Israeli
wells. They are taking our best farmlands in the West Bank. They are
building a Berlin Wall around Jerusalem. Unbelievable! Who can accept this?
Who can accept this? Bethlehem and Hebron are separated from the north.
Jerusalem is completely separated from the West Bank by more than six
kilometers of expropriated land....

Lastly, officialdom just seems to be catching up in its criticism of the
fence with the US president's wife. Before the fence's construction even
began, US First Lady Laura Bush, in a rare comment on foreign policy, said
on the American Urban Radio Network June 17, 2002, "I don't know that a
fence will be some long-lasting sign of
peace."(NYT, June 18 2002) (David Bloom)
[top]

2. ISRAELI TREE-HUGGERS CONCERNED ABOUT WALL'S ECO-IMPACTS
The center-left Israeli daily Ha'aretz in a June 21 article worried about
the environmental damage the Apartheid wall will cause. "The separation
fence severs the continuity of open areas and is harmful to the landscape,
the flora and fauna, the ecological corridors and the drainage of the
creeks," the article begins. "The protective
system will irreversibly affect the land resource and create enclaves of
communities that are cut off from their surroundings." Environment Minister
Yehudit Naot (Shinui) is considered "environmentally sensitive," says
Ha'aretz. "I certainly don't want to stop or delay the building of the
fence, because it is essential and will save lives," she claims. "On the
other hand, I am disturbed by the environmental damage involved. Therefore,
what remains is to do the maximum to save what can possibly be saved." Also
very concerned about the environmental damage is Aharon Nachmais, director
of Israel's parks. He's worried about what the wall will do to wild
animals, which will be cut off from their natural habitats by the fence.
"The animals don't know that there is now a border," Nachmias explains.
"They are used to a certain living space, and what we are concerned about
is that their genetic diversity will be affected because different
population groups will not be able to mate and reproduce. Isolating the
populations on two sides of a fence definitely creates a genetic problem."
To counter this problem, Israel will create 17 centimeter holes in the
wall, so small animals, rodents, crocodiles, and foxes will be able to get
through. (Ha'aretz, June 21)

The Israeli concern for animals and genetic diversity doesn't seem to
extend to human beings. On June 18, a law forbidding Palestinians from the
territories from getting Israeli citizenship by marrying Israeli spouses
passed its first reading in the Knesset. If
the bill becomes law, Palestinian Israelis will no longer be able to marry
Palestinians from the territories and have their spouse live with them in
Israel. They will have to move to the territories if they want to be
together. Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada says that with this
proposed law, "Israel takes another leap towards institutionalized
apartheid." (Lebanon Daily Star, June 26) (David Bloom)
[top]

3. ISRAEL CREATES ANOTHER BANTUSTAN
Baka al-Garbiyeh is a Palestinian Israeli village inside the Green
Line--that is, within Israel proper. Just across the Green Line is Baka
al-Sharqiyeh, and Nazlat Isa, Palestinian villages that abut the Green
Line, in Palestinian "area C" in the northern West Bank. Israel's
Separation Fence, or "Apartheid Wall" as the Palestinians call it, is being
built several kilometers to the east of the villages, cutting them off from
the rest of Palestinian territory. Now Israel has announced it is fencing
off the villages on the Palestinian side from Baka al-Garbiyeh on the
Israeli side. This time, the fence will indeed be built on the Green Line;
in the process, dozens of dunams (1 acre = 4 dunams) will be seized from
both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. 7,700 Palestinian residents of
Nazlat Isa and Baka al-Sharqiyeh will be completely walled inside a
Ghetto-Bantustan--with the only way out being a to-be-announced gate to the
east.

"Welcome to prison," said Samir al-Assad, an accountant from Nazlat Isa.
"Soon there will be such a high wall here that even a bird won't be able to
escape." On Jan. 21, the Israeli army came and destroyed 62 shops housed in
28 buildings in Nazlat Isa. At the time, local merchants surmised to WW3
REPORT that the army's real intention in destroying the town's commercial
center was the eventual creation of a settler-only highway to run on the
route passing through the middle of the town. "Security," was the reason
soldiers gave to protestors for all the destruction. "Israel plans to build
a road to Jordan that will restrict the town from the south," Ha'aretz
notes.

The 800-meter-long and six-meter-high wall will also destroy the close-knit
relationship that each of the communities has across the Green Line. "This
ghetto plan will affect our economy and our relations with the Jews. It
increases the hatred and tension," said Hassan Mawassi, a local journalist.
(Ha'aretz, June 27) (David Bloom)

4. BURMESE CRYPTO-JEWS EMIGRATING STRAIGHT TO SETTLEMENTS About 5,000
members of the Burmese community known as Bnei Menashe are currently
waiting in India for emigration to Israel. At a Knesset Immigration
Absorption Committee debate in June, Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz protested
that several dozen Bnei Menashe members had recently been brought to
settlements, where they had undergone "hasty" conversion.

"This is an amazing and infuriating story," said Pines-Paz. "How is it
possible that hundreds of people are being brought from India to go to
settlements? They are arriving clandestinely... It is a disgrace. This is
illegal immigration and it must stop immediately." Pines opined that new
immigrants should first be brought to places in Israel proper like Afula or
Petah Tikva, "to understand the normal life of the country," and then be
given the choice to decide where to live. "I think the whole thing is
something that is totally unacceptable. You bring people from all over the
world--from Mexico, from India, from whatever--straight to the
settlements." Pines added.

Committee chair MK Colette Avital (Labor) said it was clear the newcomers
were being brought to Israel to bolster the settlements in the occupied
territories. "Simple Indians are being brought here to save the settlement
movement," she said. "There are many millions of people in India who would
prefer to go the suburbs of Gaza than to remain in the reality of Kashmir.
Is it possible that the chief rabbis are lending a hand to missionary
activities?"

Rabbi Eliahu Avihail, whose work involves bringing far-flung purported
members of the lost tribes of Israel "back" to the modern state of Israel,
says that only the settlements are prepared to take in the Bnei Menashe,
because they exist in a penurious state. There are now some 750 Bnei
Menashe living in the settlements of Kiryat Arba, Gush Katif, and Beit El.
(Ha'aretz, June 19; Arutzsheva.com, June 18)

The Bnei Menashe, or "children of Menassah," believe they are descended
from the Jewish tribe of Menassah who fled the northern Kingdom of Israel
under Assyrian attack in 744 BCE. They first were exiled to Assyria (now
Iraq) and four hundred years later, still further east to escape the armies
of Alexander the Great--first to Afghanistan, and eventually across the
Himalayas and into China. They believed they were the only Jews left, and
lived quietly under Chinese rule, until late in the 13th century CE, when
they encountered western missionaries who threatened to convert them to
Christianity. To escape persecution they went to live in caves in southern
China, where they acquired the name "Shinlung," which means "cave
covering." About 500 to 600 years ago, the Chinese found the Shinlung,
seized their holy parchment [which according to Shinlung tradition was
their Torah] and drove them into today's Thailand and Burma--although some
are thought to have traveled down the Mekong River into Vietnam, the
Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. From Thailand and Burma, many Shinlung
migrated to the northeast Indian provinces of Mizoram and Manipur [nowhere
near Kashmir], where an estimated 1.25 to 4 million Shinlung live today.
Although most were Christianized in the last centuries, 10,000 live as
actively Jewish Bnei Menashe in 13 towns. Of this number some thousands
have formally converted to orthodox Judaism, and many of them want to
emigrate to Israel.

According to Rabbi Avihail, Jewish customs that have survived through the
Christianization of the Bnei Menashe include circumcision--performed with
rocks, in a manner consistent with the Torah but without reference to the
Rabinnic and Halachic traditions which they were not exposed to in their
exile. Their priest mentions in services the Patriarch Abram and Moriah [a
reference to the prevention of the sacrifice of Isaac at Mount Moriah]. The
priest also mentions Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, and uses the Hebrew word
for God. Under Avihail's direction, several thousand have adopted
Rabinnic-Halachic modern Judaism. (Ha'aretz, Aug. 16, 1999; Hadassah
Magazine, 1999; See also: http://www.bneimenashe.com/)

5. ETHIOPIAN CRYPTO-JEWS IN LIMBO
Like Burma's Bnei Menash, the Falash Mura of Ethiopia--Christians who are
the descendants of Ethiopian Jews--are in a controversy surrounding their
Israeli immigration status. Forced to convert to Christianity under
economic duress or even death threats from Christian neighbors, the Falash
Mura secretly remained Jews. 18,000 of the Falash Mura now await emigration
to Israel. Loolwa Khazzoom, writing for the Pacific News Service June 18,
notes that Israel's chief rabbi said May 23 that the Falash Mura are "one
hundred percent Jews, without a doubt" and should "immediately be brought
to Israel ... to rescue them from the jaws of death." The Falash Mura, many
with relatives in Israel, have gathered in Addis Abbaba and are awaiting
emigration under poor living conditions. But Israel has so far hedged on
the Falash Mura's emigration, and a six-month-old emigration plan has
collapsed.

Some have charged racism: In the Israeli Knesset, one member of the Shas
party, representing the country's Sephardic and Oriental religious Jews,
challenged the country's new Interior minister, from the anti-religious
Shinui party. "If they were Romanian you would find the money," said Shas
lawmaker Nissim Ze'ev, referring to Interior Minister Avraham Poraz's
country of origin. "Tell the truth. You don't want blacks here." (The
Forward, June 27)

Another official argument is economics: "Falash Mura come from another kind
of culture, another kind of country and society," said Aric Puder,
spokesman for the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption. "We need to give
a lot of special programs in order to absorb them into the Israeli society."

Yet Khazzoom points out that Israel "actively scouted out and absorbed one
million Jewish immigrants from Russia" in the last decade, and according to
the group Jewish Agency for Israel, almost 250,000 were in fact non-Jews.
(Pacific News Service)
These non-Jews have been described as a "demographic time-bomb."(Jerusalem
Post, June 22, 2001)
[top]

6. ISRAEL INVESTIGATES HOMEGROWN NEO-NAZI WEBSITE
The problem of a quarter of a million "non-Jews" arriving with the
million-strong aliyah (emigration to Israel) from the former Soviet Union
has long been controversial in Israel. Now it appears that a group of
Russian "non-Jews" have formed an Israeli neo-Nazi group.

The UK Guardian notes that it is an "open secret" that many of the Russians
have only distant ties to Judaism, and that some brought "forged birth
certificates." The Guardian charges that "the Israeli government, desperate
for new immigrants to counter the burgeoning Palestinian population, turned
a blind eye." (UK Guardian, June 24)

In a June 22, 2001 Jerusalem Post article, Jonathan Rosenblum describes how
the "Law of Return" of Jews to the modern state of Israel gets a little
complicated: "Initially adopted in 1950, the Law of Return gave every Jew
the right to immigrate to Israel. An amendment in 1970 extended that right
to non-Jews who had a Jewish parent or grandparent, their spouses and the
spouses of Jews. Of the 250,000 non-Jewish Russian immigrants, about 30,000
fall under the 'grandfather clause.' The rest are spouses or children of
Jews. Assuming half of those 250,000 are women of childbearing age, the
figures mean that in coming generations, the Jewish State will be producing
non-Jews, since halachah [rabbinic Jewish law] does not accept the children
of non-Jewish mothers as Jews."

Rosenblum adds that "as a consequence of the Jewish Agency's focus on
numbers, Israel's churches are now filled, the sight of soldiers wearing
large crucifixes no longer surprises, and over 20% of new immigrants
inducted in January demanded to take their induction oath on the New
Testament." Rosenblum adds that the derogatory Russian term for Jews,
"Zhid", is often heard in the Russian-speaking sections of Ashkelon and
Asdod, and anti-Semitic graffiti can often be seen in these Israeli cities.
(Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2001)

An organization calling itself "The White Israel Union" has put up a
neo-Nazi web site in based in Israel, according to May 23 Ha'aretz. The
site contains racist comments against both Arabs and Jews. It lists
addresses where Holocaust denial literature can be bought, as well as
displays of neo-Nazi poetry. The site has a picture of activists of the
White Israel Union who can be seen in the uniform of the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF). The activists have their
arms raised in a Nazi salute. The managers of the site introduce themselves
as "Ilya from Haifa and Andrei from Arad," and describe themselves as
"people who have pride in themselves and are sick of living among the dirty
bastards." The "Who our enemies are" section describes Jews, Arabs,
immigrants from Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union, Moroccans and
foreign workers. The White Israel Union calls all these groups "the
black-asses." The Israeli Attorney-general has ordered an investigation
into the web site. (Ha'aretz, May 23; Ha'aretz, June 24)

Lilly Galli, writing in Ha'aretz May 23 says "the site resembles neo-Nazi
sites in Russia, and strong connections exist between the activists here
and the activists there. In the forum on the local site, there is an
ambivalent attitude toward the fact that these proud white people are
living in Israel... The members who live in Israel explain that they want
to defend the true Russian person on Israeli soil. They have a mission."
(Ha'aretz, May 23)(David Bloom)
[top]

7. QADDAFI OPTS FOR BI-NATIONAL STATE (HUH?)
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, in the past a strong "rejectionist," has
recommended a complete overhaul of the "roadmap." In a speech delivered via
satellite link from Tripoli to an academic conference in London, Qaddafi
called for one unified state for both the Palestinian and Israeli people.
The Libyan dictator noted that the territory comprised by Israel and the
occupied Palestinian territories was simply too small to accommodate two
states. "The territory is too narrow to accommodate two states, and they
would fight," Qaddafi said. The new name for the binational state? Qaddafi
suggests "Israteen." (Jerusalem Post, Jun. 28)

The irony here is that Qaddafi is an adherent and proselytizer of "third
position" ideology, an offshoot of National Socialism. According to
Political Research Associates, which monitors the Far Right's attempted
appropriation of the Left, "Qaddafi has sponsored several international
conferences promoting his special variation of racial nationalism and
cultivating ideas congruent with Third Position ideology." Qaddafi's brand of Third
Positionism has won him admirers from a wide variety of racial separatists,
including Nick Griffin of the racist British National Party (BNP),
ultra-fascist Roberto Fiore of the Interational Third Position (ITP), and
US-based black separatist Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

Can it be that Qaddafi, who once said: "Were it not for the problem of
Palestine, I would be the first to defend the Jews in the world,"
(International Herald Tribune,4/16/1993) has changed his racialist spots?
Or is he perhaps finding a complex way to weasel his way off the greater
Axis-of-Evil list, at the risk of alienating his crypto-fascist friends and
fellow travelers around the world? (David Bloom)

8. KAHANISTS DESTROY GAY PRIDE FLAGS
Several days before the second annual June 27 Gay Pride march in Jerusalem,
members of the outlawed far-right Kach party--followers of the late
extremist rabbi Meir Kahane--ripped down and burned many of the
rainbow-colored pride flags that had been placed along the parade's route.
(JTA, June 26) In a statement sent to Ma'ariv on June 18, Kach stated,
"It's disgraceful that gay pride flags should fly in Jerusalem,
particularly when there is an ultra-orthodox mayor." It added, "We will not
permit the Jewish character of the city to be undermined." (Advocate.com,
June 18) The recently elected ultra-orthodox mayor of Jerusalem, Uri
Lupolianski, ignored calls
from the Jerusalem's orthodox community to ban the march, but he did call
it "an abomination." (JTA, June 26) Opined far-right activist and
self-declared former Kach spokesman Itamar Ben-Gvir, "This is a disgusting
parade which has no place in a Jewish state." Ben-Gvir claimed to have
removed 30 flags himself.

The director of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian Center filed a complaint
against the Kahanists for breaking the law. "The rule of law will overcome
this racist movement," Hagai El-Ad said, adding that the gay pride flags
were "the most prominent symbol for tolerance and openness." (Jerusalem
Post, June 26) (David Bloom)
[top]

THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT

1. ASIA TIMES: U.S. IN SECRET MEETING WITH TALIBAN
Asia Times reports that, faced with growing unrest and resistance, US and
Pakistani intelligence officials have secretly met with Taliban leaders "in
an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being
further ripped apart." Asia Times said its sources was "a Pakistani jihadi
leader who played a role in setting up the communication, the meeting took
place recently between representatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Taliban
leaders at the Pakistan Air Force base of Samungli, near Quetta."

The source told Asia Times that conditions were put to the Taliban before
any reconciliation can take place that could potentially lead to them
having a role in the Kabul government, including: Mullah Omar must be
removed as supreme leader of the Taliban; all Pakistani, Arab and other
foreign fighters currently engaged in operations against international
troops in Afghanistan must be expelled from the country; and any US or
allied soldiers held captive must be released. The Taliban was said to have
refused the first condition point blank, but "showed some flexibility on
the other terms." (Syed Saleem Shahzad for Asia Times, June 14)
[top]

2. GERMAN SERVICEMEN'S GROUP WARNS OF TALIBAN RESTORATION
Following a 7 June terror attack that killed four German soldiers,
Germany's main servicemen's group, Armed Forces Association, has declared
the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan a failure this week and called for
Germany to either win greater powers for the force or pull out all 2,300
personnel. The AFA's president, Bernhard Gertz, told the press agency DPA
that the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
should be extended beyond Kabul--but with a military rather than a
reconstruction mission. "The civilian staff and soldiers would go there cap
in hand, with no authority, and be only able to make empty threats," he
said. He warned that the potential disaster of the Taliban returning to
Afghanistan
was already well advanced. (DPA, June 26)
[top]

THE SUBCONTINENT

1. NEW KASHMIR VIOLENCE TESTS PEACE PROCESS
Sixteen were killed and 40 wounded in Indian-held Kashmir June 23, in one
of the worst 24 hours of violence since India and Pakistan began a
tentative peace process in April. At least two civilians were killed when
suspected rebels threw a grenade at a crowded market in Shopian, south of
Kashmir's main city, Srinagar, a paramilitary official told Reuters. It was
the third grenade attack in four days; 30 were injured in two grenade
attacks on June 20. Police said militants shot dead three members of a
family in a village near the Pakistan border. No group claimed
responsibility for either attack. Six civilians and five militants were
also killed in separate incidents June 23 in Jammu and Kashmir, India's
only Muslim-majority state. The new violence came a day ahead of a meeting
between President Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. (Reuters,
June 23)
[top]

2. INDIA SELLS OUT TIBET
Talks between India and China in Beijing have led to a landmark agreement
over the status of Tibet, with India formally recognizing that the area
known as Tibetan Autonomous Region is part of the People's Republic of
China. In return, China agreed to open border trade through
Sikkim--implicitly recognizing India's claim to the area. Indian Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee hailed the moves as a step towards normalized relations,
upset by long-running border disputes, which erupted into war in 1962. The
issue of Tibet's sovereignty has long been a source of tension, with the
Dalai Lama leading a Tibetan government-in-exile in the Indian town of
Dharamsala. China, in turn, has refused to accept that Sikkim is part of
India. (BBC, June 24)

A Sri Lanka navy patrol intercepted a ship controlled by the Tamil Tiger
guerillas carrying 12 people June 14, sparking a confrontation that ended
with the rebel ship exploding and sinking off the country's northeast
coast. Guerilla leaders said all 12 crew jumped from the ship before it
exploded and were captured by the navy, but the navy denied their claims.
That same day, suspected Tamil Tiger snipers killed a leading Tamil
politician in the northern city of Jaffna. Subathran, a leader of the
Jaffna unit of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, opposed
the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, which controls much of the Jaffna
Peninsula. Violence continues in Sri Lanka despite a shaky February 2002
cease-fire. (AP, June 15)
[top]

SOUTHEAST ASIA

1. U.S.-SUPPLIED F-16s ATTACK ACEH SEPARATISTS; U.S. REPORTER TRAPPED
BEHIND REBEL LINES
The Indonesian military has used two of its US-made F-16 jets in its
campaign against separatist forces in Aceh, although military officials
denied reports they had bombed or fired on ground targets. Two other
US-made aircraft, OV-10 Broncos, also were involved in the attacks,
although air force spokesman Col. Iskandar said he could not confirm
reports they had fired 16 air-to-ground rockets in the operation.
Indonesian military officials played down their use of F-16, saying they
had been employed only to scare rebels with the "sonic boom" that comes
from flying through the sound barrier. But a military officer, Captain
Mohamed Fajar, was quoted in several Indonesian newspapers as saying bombs
had been dropped and three of 11 targets had been hit. Col. Iskandar said
these reports were wrong and there was "no way we would use a bomb because
it would create huge damage... Besides, F-16s are mainly for shooting
targets in the air, it's not effective for targets on the ground."

The use of the F-16s for the first time in the offensive came as the chair
of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, asked
President Megawati Sukarnoputri to help ensure the safety of William
Nessen, an American freelance journalist who has been living for five weeks
with the guerillas of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). In a letter to
Megawati, Lugar said Nessen had told his staff he believed "he will likely
be killed or arrested by your military officials" if he tried to leave the
guerillas.

The commander of the military operation in Aceh, Brigadier-General Bambang
Darmono, reportedly spoke to Nessen by phone, assuring him he would not be
shot if he left the GAM. But he said he could not comply with Nessen's
request that he not be detained or questioned . (The Age, Australia, June 18)

Speaking via mobile phone to journalist Jo Mazzocchi of the Australian
Broadcasting Company, Nessen (has written from Indonesian for the San
Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, the UK Independent and the Sydney
Morning Herald) described atrocities he had witnessed in the Aceh
offensive:

"The Indonesians have been able to cover this up partly because war is such
a scary situation you can't go back to count how many people got killed. I
can't say, but I've seen people shot next to me... I saw a man raise his
arms in the air and was shot. The man that was holding my camera for me,
who sometimes filmed for me, was killed a few meters away from me as he
raised his arms in the air."

He also said witnesses had told him of defenseless communities being bombed
from the air. Nessen believes the civilian population is being targeted in
an effort to destroy the GAM's support base, with villages cut off from the
outside world and running out of food:

"They're starving them, they're cutting off... I believe that this is a war
to destroy the guerrilla movement. They can't destroy all the Acehnese. But
the guerrillas are part of that, the ordinary people... In every village
there are 10 to 15 people, I mean in the dozens of villages I've been, who
consider themselves GAM members. These are unarmed people. So you multiply
that by the hundreds of villages in Aceh and you get a figure that's far
greater than the several thousand fighters than they have. The civilian GAM
structure is in the tens of thousands. (The World Today, ABC, Australia,
June 17)

The US-based Indonesia Human Rights Network (IHRN) has called upon the
Indonesian government to respect freedom of the press, ensure the safety of
journalists and human rights workers working in Aceh, and to end harassment
and intimidation of activists and reporters focusing on the war-torn
region. The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists also sent a
letter to Megawati urging immediate action to ensure Nessen's safety, and
the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders sent a similar letter to
Indonesian military officials. But Aceh provincial governor Abullah Puteh
recently commented, "Foreign journalists are here to stir up problems in
Aceh" and cited Nessen as an example.

The press has repeatedly come under fire during the Indonesian military's
Aceh offensive. Snipers have ambushed several press vehicles. Police and
army officials have interrogated journalists reporting on army atrocities
against civilians; some journalists have received death threats. Indonesia
is employing an "embedded reporter" program, with Indonesian journalists
undergoing "boot camp" style training and wearing military uniforms.
Reporters have been warned not to report on military abuses they have
witnessed. Mohamad Jamal, a cameraman for the Indonesian government-run
television station TVRI, was kidnapped by unknown men on May 20, the day
after the new military operations began in Aceh. Jamal's body was found on
June 17 in a river near Banda Aceh, bound and gagged with duct tape with a
noose around his neck. A reporter for Indonesian television station SCTV,
Dhandy Dwi Laksono, was fired after interviewing an Acehnese man was about
being tortured by the TNI. According to Laksono, the station received
threatening messages from the military after the interview aired.

Human rights workers and attorneys have also been subject to attacks for
their work in Aceh. Many have fled the region. Indonesia's National Human
Rights Commission says there have been arbitrary arrests of human rights
workers. In May, an organized mob of 100 thugs attacked the Jakarta office
and staff of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence
(KONTRAS) because of the NGO's criticism of government actions in Aceh. All
foreigners have been banned from travel to Aceh.

Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra in the west of the
Indonesian archipelago, is the site of one of Asia's longest running wars.
For almost 27 years, the GAM has been demanding independence from
Indonesia. On last December, a cease-fire agreement was signed between
Indonesia and GAM. Both sides were subsequently criticized for violating
the agreement. In February, Indonesian security forces began actively
undermining the agreement by targeting peaceful political and human rights
activists for arrest. At talks in Tokyo, the Indonesian government demanded
that GAM drop its goal of independence and disband in order to continue the
talks--conditions that GAM could not fulfill. On May 19, 2003, Indonesian
President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law in Aceh. A few hours
later, hundreds of Indonesian troops poured in and renewed attacks on both
GAM and Acehnese civilians. Numerous civilians and five GAM negotiators
were arrested. Under martial law they are not allowed legal representation
for twenty days; this can be extended to fifty days. Human rights groups
estimate some 200 civilians have been killed in Aceh since Indonesia
declared martial law on May 19. Over 40,000 people have fled their homes;
many are in camps without clean drinking water and adequate
sanitation. Indonesia has estimated that over 300,000 people will be
displaced in the military operation.

At issue is a struggle for control over the region's rich natural
resources. ExxonMobil, which has gas fields in Aceh, provides Indonesian
troops with economic and material support, and Acehnese activists and is
accused of complicity in the murder, kidnapping and rape of local Acehnese
by military forces.

1. MOROCCO-ALGERIA ANTI-TERROR AXIS
Morocco and Algeria, tense North African neighbors but now both battling
Islamic militants, have announced greater anti-terrorism cooperation.
Speaking just a month after Casablanca was hit by a wave of suicide
bombings blamed on Islamist extremists, Moroccan Communications Minister
Nabil Benabdellah told a Paris news conference that new plans for
cooperation are under way, but gave no details. "With Morocco and Algeria
equally hit hard, we must ... act together to eradicate this scourge,"
Moroccan state news agency MAP quoted Benabdellah as saying.

Relations between Morocco and Algeria have been tense for over 25 years,
largely due to the dispute over Western Sahara, claimed by the
Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement but controlled by
Morocco. Western diplomats say the US administration and European
governments, particularly France and Spain, have been encouraging Morocco
and Algeria to work together against terrorism. Bilateral contacts have
intensified in recent months with their foreign ministers' paying
reciprocal visits. Benabdellah did not rule out a meeting between King
Muhammad and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Such a summit would
be the first public meeting between the two since 1999, when Bouteflika
attended the funeral of the monarch's father.

Meanwhile, four people were killed in eastern Algeria June 19 by a group of
armed extremists, authorities said. The four were killed on a road near the
town of El-Ancer in the Jijel region, 360 kilometers east of Algiers.
Extremists have carried out several attacks in Algeria's eastern region in
recent days, particularly in Kabylia, home to the large Berber minority.
Three civilians were killed June 15 near Setif, 300 kilometers east of
Algiers, and on the same day, four police were killed in a bomb attack at
Tizi N'tletat, near Kabylia's main city, Tizi Ouzou.

A gendarme--member of the military police--was killed on June 18 and
another seriously injured in an ambush on a road near Boumerdes, 50
kilometers east of Algiers. The latest attacks brought the number killed in
Algeria in June to over 100. Algeria has been wracked by civil war since
1992, the year elections were cancelled by the army to keep an Islamist
party from taking power. (AFP, June 20)

Late last year, the Bush administration announced new sales of equipment to
Algeria's
military-backed government to help combat Islamic militants. Officials
declined to say how large the package of military equipment might be, or
what would be sold, but that items were likely to include night-vision gear
for use by individuals or on military vehicles. Human rights groups accuse
Algeria of brutality on its crackdown over the past 10 years. Over 100,000
people have reportedly been killed in violence during the past decade; some
put the number at 150,000. William Burns, assistant secretary of state for
Near Eastern and Northern African affairs, said in Algiers that the US was
drafting a proposal for Congress on increasing military aid to Algeria.
"These steps aim at intensifying the security cooperation between the
countries," he said. "Washington has much to learn from Algeria on ways to
fight terrorism."

The US has had no aid program for Algeria since at least 1992, when the
government canceled an election that was apparently won by the militant
Islamic Salvation Front. That party was banned when the election was called
off, sparking a civil war which in the last two years has dwindled to
sporadic terrorist attacks. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won praise
from the Bush administration for his economic reforms, and he was one of
the first Muslim leaders to offer help to the US in its campaign against
terrorism after the 9-11 attacks.

Until now, the only program of US military cooperation with Algeria is one
offering training and education to officers. A US official said $121,000
was spent on the program in 2001, and another $200,000 in 2002. In 2003 the
program's cost is to grow to $550,000. (NYT, Dec. 10, 2002)

In 2000, the Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown & Root won a contract
from the Algerian state oil company Sonatrach and its partner BP-Amoco to
assist in oil and gas projects in Algeria's southern desert. (Halliburton
press release, Jan. 5, 2000)
[top]

2. ALGERIA FREES BERBER ACTIVISTS--FOR NOW
Algerian authorities have released at least 15 imprisoned Berber activists
in the Kabylia region under measures aimed at opening dialogue between the
government and the Berber movement. Those freed on bail include the
activist Belaid Abrika, who
figurehead for Algeria's Berber movement, which is seeking autonomy for
Kabylia. The activists are due to go on trial later this year, mostly for
breaching the peace. The Kabylia region has seen unrest and sporadic
violence for the past two years, since the Algerian government put down
riots sparked by police brutality. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has called
on the Berbers to enter a dialogue aimed at bringing security to the
region. (BBC World Service, June 11)

June 13 marked the end of the three-day African Economic Summit that took
place in Durban, South Africa. The summit, organized by the World Economic
Forum,
had the stated objective of enhancing the
continent's stalled efforts to attract new resources for development and
growth.

The 600 delegates to the summit discussed how to bolster the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the plan drawn up by African
leaders to bring in new investment and aid. However, the main organizations
of Africa's left opposition are expressing skepticism about NEPAD--and note
that its mandates for economic liberalization come at a time of renewed
Western military intervention in Africa.

"New Partnership" for Africa's Misery?

Among NEPAD's main strategies are plans for the privatization of
infrastructure such as water, electricity, telcoms and transport on a
continent where the limited buying power of the vast majority could make
this a recipe for harsh deprivation. According to a critical report of
NEPAD by Zo Randriamaro, published by the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, the drafting process
of NEPAD's main component, the Millennium Africa Recovery Programme,
involved "select elites" mainly from the North, including US President
George Bush, heads of transnational corporations, economists from US
universities, the World Bank, and leaders from the world's richest
countries. NEPAD calls for greater insertion of Africa into the world
economy--but given the history of harsh exploitation by foreign interests,
this could also spell entrenched marginalization.

NEPAD also insists that multi-party elections be held, but typically these
elections are between variants of neo-liberal parties that support programs
of privatization and globalization and do not, opponents charge, constitute
genuine democracy. The plan also fosters grand visions of advancement in
information and communications technology but many feel these goals are
hopelessly unrealistic considering the lack of basic, reliable electricity
across the continent.

NEPAD's most disconcerting proposal is to secure a lower foreign debt
rather than promoting full and immediate debt cancellation, as demanded by
the grassroots left-opposition across the continent. NEPAD claims it will
"support existing poverty reduction initiatives at the multilateral level,
such as the Comprehensive Development Framework of the World Bank and the
Poverty Reduction Strategy approach linked to the Highly Indebted Poor
Country debt relief initiative."

The first public protest against NEPAD occurred last June, at the World
Economic Forum's Southern Africa regional meeting in Durban, where
anti-apartheid poet Dennis Brutus--now acting secretary of Jubilee South
Africa, demanding debt-cancellation--led over a hundred nonviolent
demonstrators against horse-charging policemen. (Zmag.org, June 20, 2002)

This year, the WEF meeting in Durban brought out several hundred
protesters. Trevor Ngwane of the Anti-Privatization Forum told the crowd
outside the summit: "As we're talking now, the World Economic Forum leaders
are discussing how to make the rich richer. We want to make them realize
that people come first and profits last. It's a shame that the people who
got to the top with our blood and sweat are the same people not wanting to
lend us an ear today." (The Mercury, South Africa, June 13)

Zo Randriamaro also notes that NEPAD was finalized just after the 9-11
attacks, as the US was establishing the international coalition against
terrorism. African states are now being categorized into "failed" or
"failing" states which could accommodate terrorists, as opposed to
governments which can demonstrate control. Some analysts warn of a "new
colonization" of the continent, as the US, UK and France all prepare
intervention forces for Africa's regional wars--either in the name of
rooting out terrorist strongholds, or in the name of "humanitarianism," to
halt genocide. But, as with NEPAD, access to Africa's resources may be a
factor in the new interventionism.

Resource Free-For-All in "Greater Liberia"

France's involvement with Liberia's timber--or "logs of war" as they've
been called--is one example of a resource interest in an area of armed
conflict now facing Western intervention. The environmental advocacy group
Global Witness recently reported that the records of Liberia's own Forestry
Development Authority document that timber exploitation in the war-ravaged
country is rapidly escalating. "The FDA semi-annual report covering the
period from January to June 2000, reported that in those six months,
production...was more than that of the previous four years put together."
When sanctions were imposed on West African "conflict diamonds" which
supported the activities of the brutal guerillas in Sierra Leone, France
brought pressure to assure that Liberian timber would not be included in
the embargo--even though this timber is a key source of revenue for
Liberia's dictatorial leader Charles Taylor, who supported the Sierra Leone
rebels. Meanwhile, as Taylor established de-facto control over neighboring
Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast through proxy forces, French interests reaped
timber profits throughout the region. As Anthony Lewis wrote for the
Liberian electronic journal The Perspective: "French companies invaded
'Greater Liberia.' They were well aware of the unstable conditions in
Liberia, so the port of San Pedro, in the Southwest of Ivory Coast became
the port of exit of Liberian timber towards Europe. From a dying coastal
town, San Pedro boomed during the war and was the market place for Liberian
diamonds, timber and gold."

Global Witness also cited the Oriental Timber Corporation--the company
presently implicated destroying the Liberian rainforest--as having
exclusive use of the eastern town of Buchanan, from which it ships huge
quantities of timber to Europe, mainly France. France has a long history of
"humanitarian interventions" in Africa, most recently Ivory Coast, Sierra
Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo--areas containing such valuable
resources as rainforest timber, chocolate, coffee, diamonds, and coltan.
(See WW3 REPORT #89)

However, according to a Human Rights Watch report,
it looks as though
Taylor's days may be numbered. The Sierra Leone Special Court on the
recently-ended conflict in the country approved an indictment against
Taylor on March 7, and a warrant for his arrest has been served on the
authorities in the neighboring Ghana, alerting them should he take refuge
there. Interpol has also been alerted to have Taylor arrested. Taylor
claims, of course, that he is not under the jurisdiction of the Sierra
Leone Special Court, but the issuance of the warrant should mean that
Taylor would be arrested by the government of any country he travels to.
The indictment charges the Liberian president with war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and other serious violations of international
humanitarian law in Sierra Leone. (See WW3 REPORT #86)

Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of the Africa division of Human
Rights Watch said, "The indictment against Taylor sends a strong message
that no one is above the law when it comes to accountability for war
crimes." He added, "Charles Taylor should not be immune from prosecution
for these crimes simply because he is the president of Liberia. His
indictment is a tremendous step forward, but his arrest would be even
better."

But it seems unlikely that Taylor's paymasters in Paris will similarly see
justice. With the world's eyes elsewhere, Africa is quietly suffering, and
NEPAD may only ensure that the suffering will continue--while "security"
and "humanitarian aid" become the pretexts for superpower occupation of the
continent.
[top]

2. KOFI ANNAN CALLS FOR LIBERIA INTERVENTION FORCE
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called June 28 for a multinational force to
be sent to Liberia to halt fighting between government and rebel forces
that has killed hundreds. France joined calls for an intervention force for
Liberia, and said it was in talks with the US on how to proceed. Annan,
visiting Geneva, issued his call in a letter to the Security Council, which
he said should meet immediately to agree on intervention. A sudden rebel
offensive on the capital Monrovia left hundreds dead before President
Charles Taylor's forces battled the guerillas back beyond the city's
limits. Two rebel factions now control 60% of Liberia, and President Bush
urging Taylor to step down. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
said:. "We need an international intervention in Liberia now. We're in
contact with the US to see what we can do to manage this emergency
situation. We'll have some results in the coming hours. A dynamic process
has started." France has already sent troops to neighboring Ivory Coast to
help end a civil war closely linked to that in Liberia. Marchers, many
driven from their homes by fighting, have repeatedly converged on the US
embassy, chanting "We want peace, no more war." Many Liberians look to the
US for help because of its historical links with the country, founded over
150 years ago by freed African American slaves.

The fighting in Monrovia was the worst since the 1990s, when corpses lay
unburied as rival factions vied for control. Negotiations in Ghana have
been adjourned for a week, and although both sides say they are committed
to talks, an official a cease-fire last week never really took hold. Taylor
has asked for US assistance, despite Bush's demand that he step down to end
bloodshed that has also spread violence to all Liberia's neighbors--Sierra
Leone, Ivory Coast and Guinea. The UK has also said it would like to see
the USs lead a multinational force into Liberia, but officials in
Washington have so far ruled out sending peacekeepers. (Reuters, June 28)
[top]

3. BUSH MULLS LIBERIA INTERVENTION
US military intervention in Liberia looked likely June 26 as President
George Bush called on President Charles Taylor to stand down, drawing
applause from an audience of businessmen, academics and African leaders..
"President Taylor needs to step down so that his country can be spared
further bloodshed," he said. With a US Navy amphibious assault ship, the
USS Kearsarge, just off the Liberian coast carrying 1,200 Marines, Bush has
the option of ordering a significant deployment to one of Africa's most
chaotic countries. If the US does send troops to Liberia, it will create a
diplomatic symmetry in West Africa, matching Britain's deployment to Sierra
Leone dating from 2000 and France's Ivory Coast operation since last year.
Reports the UK Telegraph: "Last week almost every civilian spoken to in a
straw poll in Monrovia begged for military assistance from America to help
break the cycle of violence." (UK Telegraph, June 27)
[top]

4. SERBIA CONDUIT FOR LIBERIA SANCTIONS-BUSTERS
A UN panel tracing gun-running to West Africa found that thousands of
automatic rifles, hand grenades and mines from Serbia reached Liberia last
year in violation of Security Council sanctions. The independent
Council-appointed panel said it suspected that preparations were underway
for another shipment of 50 tons of Serbian military equipment to Liberia
via Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The arms were brokered by the Belgrade-based company Temex. The Moldovan
company Aerocom and the Belgian affiliate of Ducor World Airlines
transported the weapons to Liberia, with freight-forwarding agent Interjug
AS providing the paperwork at Belgrade Airport, the panel said. The report
called Temex exec Slobodan Tesic the "chief sanctions buster." Tesic has
denied ever visiting Liberia but the panel traced his registration at
hotels in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. A Lockheed aircraft was chartered
from Ducor World Airlines, whose chief executive Duane Egli told the panel
his crew was physically threatened at Belgrade Airport and forced to fly to
Liberia. The panel said it was concerned that further weapons shipments to
Liberia via Democratic Republic of Congo from Belgrade were are planned.

Two years ago, the UN Security Council two years ago imposed an arms
embargo, a ban on diamond exports and a travel ban on Liberian President
Charles Taylor and his top associates for fueling civil war in neighboring
Sierra Leone through a guns-for-diamond trade. In May, the embargo was
extended for another year, and expanded to include timber exports.
(Reuters, June 5)
[top]

5. LIBERIA AGONY FRUIT OF U.S. COLD WAR DESIGNS
A June 15 AP analysis piece noted how in many of Africa's wars, "Cold War
contests set the stage for today's. In Liberia, the CIA in the 1980s made
the American-founded country its staging ground for anti-Libya activities.
Liberia became Africa's largest per capita recipient of US aid. Libya
countered by backing the overthrow of Liberia's U.S.-supported government,
training and arming the guerrilla leader who launched Liberia into war in
1989: Charles Taylor."

The report also noted how the US backed Mobutu Sese Seko, dictator of Zaire
(now Democratic Republic of Congo) for over 30 years--then groomed rebel
groups to overthrow him when he had outlived his usefulness in the
post-Cold War era. These same tribal rebel groups are today ravaging
eastern Congo.
[top]

6. BLAIR MULLS ZIMBABWE INTERVENTION
Tony Blair has privately told aides the world's democracies should not
hesitate to topple dictators like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe when they can,
the UK's Evening Standard reported June 27. The suggestion that the US, UK
and other world powers should be involved in widespread regime-change
efforts goes much farther than anything the Prime Minister has said in
public. It is likely to alarm his critics, but it also answers the charge
that Blair targeted Saddam Hussein in obedience to Bush, while ignoring
worse evils. Blair's view is revealed in the book "Thirty Days, the Inside
Diary of No 10," by Peter Stothard, to be published next month.
[top]

7. SUDAN ATTACKS TERRORIST CELL
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported June 12 that Sudanese
government forces had attacked a suspected terrorist cell, including some
Saudis, after chasing them down for two weeks. The suspects had escaped
from a camp in the area of Laqawah, in the western part of the country,
where they had been training along with 17 Saudis and one Palestinian. The
latter were arrested by security forces and extradited to Riyadh, but
several men are still holding out. The governor of West Kurdifan Province,
Gen Al-Tayib Abd-al-Rahman Mukhtar, said that authorities have laid siege
to no fewer than 15 suspects on a Laqawah mountainside. Last October,
Khartoum also extradited to Riyadh a Saudi who attempted to hijack a Saudi
plane on a flight from Khartoum to Jedda. (Via BBC Monitoring, June 13)

Later in June, the Greek seizure of an explosive-laden ship bound for Sudan
prompted heated exchanges between the two governments. Khartoum insisted
that the cargo of 680 tons of high explosives and an estimated 140,000
detonators, loaded in Tunisia, were for civilian use in cement plants. Its
foreign minister, Mustafa Ismail, accused Athens of ordering the seizure of
the Baltic Sky June 22 before knowing "all the facts." But Greece, keen to
shore up its image before the 2004 Olympics and on high security alert
during its months as EU president, rejected Ismail's claims. Officials said
the vessel's long and winding course--six weeks in the Mediterranean and
Black Sea--raised the suspicion of western intelligence agencies and NATO's
anti-terrorist taskforce. The arrested crew--five Ukrainians and two
Azerbaijanis--could be jailed for up to 20 years for illegally transporting
explosives. The vessel, flying the flag of the Comoros Islands, has been
impounded in Platiyali, Greece. (UK Guardian, June 25)

Meanwhile, war continues in Sudan's southern Darfur region, where
government forces battle the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), a new
rebel group which emerged earlier this year. The rebel movement accuses
Khartoum of excluding Darfur, one of the most arid regions in Africa's
largest country, from development and state power. It has also recently
called for the overthrow of the "Islamic regime in Khartoum and its
replacement with a democratic government." The Darfur rebels have no
apparent links with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), a
southern rebel group which has been fighting for greater autonomy for the
south from successive Islamist governments since 1983. But analysts say the
SLM/A appears to be emulating the SPLM/A, which has brought the government
to the negotiating table after two decades of war in which some two million
people died. (Reuters, April 26)

8. UGANDA'S CHRISTIAN REBELS ATTACK CHURCHES
Ugandan Christian fundamentalist rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
reportedly killed 18 people in the northern district of Apac--including a
six-year-old boy. Missionaries said that rebel leader Joseph Kony had
ordered the killing of clergy and the destruction of missions. The LRA,
feared for its practice of maiming villagers and abducting children for use
as soldiers and sex slaves, is engaged in a 17-year insurgency against the
government. "Last week in a radio communication with his commanders he was
heard ordering the killing of Catholic priests and nuns," Father Carlos
Rodriguez told Reuters by telephone from the northern district of Gulu.
Rodriguez said the message had been intercepted because Kony, a self-styled
prophet who wants to found a state based on Biblical law, was using radio
equipment stolen from missions. "We have no reason to doubt the message was
authentic," Rodriguez said. "In the last five weeks LRA has burned, bombed
and desecrated churches on nine occasions." (Reuters, June 16)

Ironically, both Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and Sudanese guerillas
charge that the Christian extremist LRA is supported by the Islamist regime
in neighboring Sudan, as a means of weakening the rival Museveni regime.
(New Vision, Kampala, June 24)
[top]

9. CONGO WAR: 9-11 EVERY DAY
Wrote AP June 25: "Which war has claimed the most lives since World War II?
Korea? Vietnam? Not even close. The answer is the continuing conflict in
Congo. There are no firm figures on the death toll, but the range is
believed to lie between 2 million and 4.7 million. Assuming the low end
estimate, that's equivalent to a 9-11 every day for 666 days. The
International Rescue Committee estimates that 3.3 million people have died
throughout Congo, most of them from war-induced famine and disease. And
there is nothing resembling a weapon of mass destruction in the conflict.
The weapons of choice for the most part are bows and arrows, machetes,
assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Child soldiers abound.
Orphans, some of them under 10, often have little choice other than to join
one of the militias doing the fighting. Despite three peace agreements
aimed at ending the 5-year-old Congolese war, fighting intensified in late
2002 and early 2003."

The report actually quoted Secretary of State Colin Powell in a comparison
of the death toll from the 20th century's major wars and that from AIDS in
contemporary Africa: "You could take all of the lives lost through weapons
of mass destruction over the past century...go through World War I, go
through Hiroshima, go through Nagasaki, go through all of them. Put all of
those numbers together, multiply by 10 and you don't reach the number of
people who will die from HIV/AIDS in the next 12 months."

The report noted that the Bush administration is seeking $15 billion from
Congress to fight global AIDS--but failed to note how miniscule this sum is
compared to that spent on the Iraq war and occupation, or how the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been chronically
under-funded since its creation in 2001. (See WW3 REPORT #88)
[top]

10. U.S. SEIZES AL-QAEDA SUSPECTS FROM MALAWI
US officials flew five men suspected of helping funnel money to al-Qaeda
out of Malawi, despite a court order preventing their deportation, Malawian
officials charged June 25. The men were arrested June 21 night with aid
from the CIA and handed over to US authorities, Malawi intelligence
officials told AP on condition of anonymity. The men were flown to nearby
Botswana on an Air Malawi flight, the officials said. Director of Public
Prosecutions Fahad Assani said the men were handed over to US authorities,
and that he had not been informed of their whereabouts. "These people are
out of reach for us. It's the Americans who know where they are," Assani
told the AP. Officials in Malawi said the five suspects had been on the
CIA's "watch list" since the 1998 truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania. Their transfer to US custody came the day after a judge
issued an injunction against their deportation. Apparently without knowing
the men were already gone, the High Court ruled that the government's
attempts to deport the men without charging them
violated Malawi law, ordering prosecutors to either charge them or release
them. (AP, June 25)
[top]

EUROPE

1. BUSH WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES IN BELGIUM--ALMOST
US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are accused of
war crimes in Iraq under a fiercely contested Belgian law, the Brussels
government announced. But the justice ministry said the Belgian cabinet had
referred the cases against Bush, Blair and six other high-ranking officials
to the US and British governments, making any trials unlikely. The
lawsuits, brought under Belgium's "universal competence law," could still
deepen tensions between Washington and Brussels, which opposed the war in
Iraq. The 10-year-old law gives Belgium's courts the right to judge anyone
accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, regardless of
where the crime took place.

Also named in the suits were US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld's deputy Paul Wolfowitz, Attorney
General John Ashcroft, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and
outgoing Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks. Bush, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft,
Rice and Wolfowitz were additionally accused over the US-led campaign in
Afghanistan.

But a recent revision to the law by the Belgian parliament allows
authorities to pass the complaint on to another government when the accused
is not Belgian and his or her country has adequate war crimes legislation
in place. The amendment was designed to prevent "frivolous" cases. "The
fact that a decision was taken by the cabinet within 24 hours shows that
this filter works," foreign ministry spokesman Patrick Herman told AFP. But
Rumsfeld said that Belgium would face consequences unless it ditched the
law, which he branded "absurd." Rumsfeld was backed by British Defense
Secretary Geoff Hoon, who called the Belgian law a matter of "great
concern."

Outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he wanted to
circumvent the dispute by extending diplomatic immunity to all official
visitors to international bodies on Belgian territory. "We want everyone
who wants to visit the headquarters of international organisations in
Brussels to be able to do so without any problems," said Verhofstadt, who
is trying to put together a new coalition government after winning
elections in May.

So far the only convictions under the Belgian law have been those of four
Rwandans found guilty in 2001 of taking part in the 1994 genocide in their
homeland. (AFP, June 20)

2. GREEK ANARCHISTS ROCK E.U. SUMMIT
Greek riot police fired teargas to disperse anarchists who threw stones and
tried to pass police barricades around a European Union summit June 20. The
violence erupted as about 4,000 protesters staged an anti-EU march in the
village of Marmaras, just outside the summit site at the Porto Carras beach
resort, southeast of Thessaloniki. Helmeted police wearing gas masks drove
a breakaway group of about 300 into brush and pine woods around Marmaras.
(Reuters, June 20)
[top]

THE ANDEAN FRONT

1. U.S. MET SECRETLY WITH COLOMBIAN TERRORIST ENVOY
US State Department officials met secretly with an emissary of the United
Colombian Self-Defense (AUC), the nation's main paramilitary federation,
according to a four-page memo disclosed June 12 in the Colombian press. The
US officials reportedly assured him that AUC's talks with the Colombian
government should take priority over efforts to have paramilitary leaders
captured and brought to the US for trial

In a three-hour meeting May 3, US Embassy political officer Alexander Lee
told the emissary that the US would continue pushing for the arrest and
extradition of AUC leaders Salvatore Mancuso and Carlos Castano, but that
the two might receive leniency--including "detention in specially
conditioned units"--if they cooperate. They are charged with smuggling 17
tons of cocaine into the US and Europe.

The emissary, identified only as "Pablo," wrote the document to summarize
the meeting for Mancuso. "Pablo" also sent the memo to President Alvaro
Uribe's peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, and a copy was obtained
by the Medellin daily El Colombiano.

The memo said the AUC leaders would agree to pay reparations to victims of
paramilitary attacks, but that they are negotiating under the expectations
that their members won't serve prison time. Lee, according to the memo,
said the State Department desired "some type of reparation for what has
happened, given that there can't be a feeling of total impunity."

Human rights groups say AUC massacres of civilians account for most of the
war's 3,500 annual killings and that the group receives support from
Colombia's US-backed security forces. The US State Department has
officially classified the AUC as a "terrorist organization" since 2001. US
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced indictments against Mancuso,
Casta–o and their associate Juan Carlos Sierra-Ram’rez last September,
calling them violent drug traffickers who "threaten our national security."

The memo's disclosure followed a June 8 report in the Bogota weekly El
Espectador about negotiations between the AUC leaders and the CIA this
spring. Citing Colombian intelligence sources, the report said the talks
involved Mancuso, Castano and CIA agents in the cities of Bogota, Medell’n
and Monteria, between March and May.

On June 13, a US Embassy statement admitted the May 3 meeting occurred.
"But contrary to certain reports in the Colombian media, there was no
negotiation, just a reiteration of US policy," the statement said in
Spanish. "US policy is that Colombians for whom a judicial process has
opened in the United States should be extradited and that those who violate
human rights should be judged for their crimes."

The Uribe administration started negotiating with the AUC shortly after
taking office last August. Next month the administration plans to introduce
legislation for parole of some imprisoned paramilitary fighters. The
government has indicated no plans to resume negotiations with the nation's
major guerrilla groups: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Former President Andres Pastrana's
administration broke off those talks last year.

2. U.S. FUNDS TALKS WITH COLOMBIAN TERRORISTS
US Ambassador Anne Patterson said June 19 that Washington "is financing
some activities associated with" negotiations between the Colombian
government and the AUC paramilitary federation. President Alvaro Uribe's
administration initiated talks with the AUC shortly after he took office
last August. Patterson, who is leaving her post at the end of the month,
referred to the US funding during a forum on US-Colombia relations after
the Iraq war. (El Espectador, El Tiempo, June 19)

3. COLOMBIAN ARMY SWEARS IN 10,000 "PEASANT SOLDIERS"
More than 10,000 part-time "peasant soldiers" have been sworn in by the
Colombian army in the second phase of a anti-guerilla program harshly
criticized by human rights groups. Inducted in ceremonies around the
country June 16, the new recruits joined 5,000 "peasant soldiers" trained
earlier this year. "The idea that this war is going to last forever is
fiction," President Alvaro Uribe said at a ceremony in Guasca, a Spanish
colonial town 25 miles northeast of Bogota. "The time has come to defeat
terrorism."

The program recruits rural men aged 18 to 24, trains them, and returns them
to their hometowns, where they serve as soldiers for two years. With their
roots in the population, the troops will improve the tracking of leftist
guerrillas, officials say. But rights monitors fear the peasant soldiers
could become tools of rightist paramilitary groups--and that their families
will become guerrilla targets. "They have been converted into cannon fodder
for a cheap army," government ombudsperson Eduardo Cifuentes Munoz told the
Los Angeles Times. "It generates a dangerous situation for the young
soldiers and for the communities they are in."

The new deployment expands the peasant-soldier presence to 457 of
Colombia's 1,098 municipalities. The troops live in barracks and are not
allowed to stay overnight in their families' homes. They receive food,
weapons and uniforms, and the same pay, $17 a month, as regular soldiers.
But their training is only three months--two fewer than what regular
soldiers get. They are officially instructed in handling explosives,
rescuing hostages, respecting human rights and regaining control of towns
attacked by guerrillas. The army is also creating a secret network of
peasant informers to supply intelligence. And the government is increasing
the number of full-time soldiers, while phasing out army conscription, and
deploying National Police officers to scores of municipalities lacking any
police presence.

When Uribe was Antioquia Province governor from 1995 to 1997, he promoted a
civilian watch program, Convivir, whose participants are accused of
carrying out massacres, often in coordination with paramilitaries and
official armed forces. The nation's Constitutional Court described Convivir
groups as "death squads" in 1997 and ordered them to disarm.

Amnesty International foresees dire consequences from recruiting peasants
as informants and part-time soldiers: "The government's policies will
legitimize attacks against and silence those sectors of the civilian
population labeled as guerrilla collaborators by the security forces and
their allies. These include groups campaigning for socioeconomic
alternatives, peasant farmers living in conflict zones and witnesses of
human rights violations in which the security forces are implicated." (AP,
Reuters, June 16; BBC, June 17; El Espectador, June 17; El Pais, June 13;
El Tiempo, June 2, 12, 16; Los Angeles Times, May 2)

4. COLOMBIAN ARMY BRIGADE ACCUSED IN MASSACRE
Witnesses report that members of the army's Second Brigade helped a
paramilitary group known as the Calima Bloc kill six unarmed civilians and
wound eight others late June 14 in Zabaletas, a community in the Pacific
Coast municipality of Buenaventura, Valle de Cauca department. The killers
apparently accused the victims of being sympathizers of the FARC
guerrillas. President Alvaro Uribe's government says it's working to cut
links between official security forces and illegal paramilitary groups. But
Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of
the Organization of American States have cited an increase in joint
military-paramilitary operations. Last month AI also reported the "direct
involvement by the security forces in serious human rights violations,
including arbitrary arrests, torture, 'disappearances' and killings." (El
Tiempo, June 16, 19)

5. COLOMBIAN COLONEL GETS 40 YEARS FOR MASSACRE
On June 19, a judge sentenced a retired army colonel to 40 years in prison
for conspiring with paramilitaries to massacre 30 peasants in 1997 in the
jungle village of Mapiripan, Meta department. In one of the heaviest
sentences ever against a Colombian officer convicted of rights abuses,
Judge Lester Gonzalez ruled that Col. Lino Sanchez and paramilitary chief
Carlos Castano "co-authored" the killings, according to court documents
obtained by Reuters. Castano received the same sentence, but he has been
sentenced for other killings and faces no immediate threat of jail as his
AUC paramilitary network negotiates with the government. In 2001, a
military tribunal sentenced former Gen. Jaime Humberto Uscategui to over
three years in prison for failing to prevent the massacre. Human rights
groups said the sentence was far too light, and Colombia's attorney general
is retrying him. (El Tiempo, June 20; Reuters, June 19)

6. DID U.S. PRESSURE OUST DIRTY COLOMBIAN GENERAL?
Days of charges and countercharges followed a June 7 report that the
resignation of an army brigade commander resulted from months of US
pressure. Cambio newsweekly claimed Gen. Gabriel Ramon Diaz Ortiz
"maintained operating relations" with paramilitary drug traffickers during
his three years as head of the army's Second Brigade, based in the Atlantic
port of Barranquilla, and that he permitted a shipment of two tons of
cocaine and 24 rifles to be returned to a paramilitary leader. Washington
also reportedly accused Diaz Ortiz of human rights violations when he
commanded the army's 24th Brigade in the southern department of Putumayo in
the late 1990s. Diaz Ortiz denied the accusations, insisting that he is
being persecuted by non-governmental organizations for his efforts against
the nation's leftist guerrillas. He blamed National Police chief Gen.
Teodoro Campo for the disappearance of the contraband. Campo denied the
charge. Army commander Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina and Defense Minister
Marta Luc’a Ramirez denied the ouster resulted from US pressure, and said
it wasn't a punishment. They defended Diaz Ortiz and noted the absence of
any government investigation into his conduct. Sen. Edgar Artunduaga
responded that officials who defend the disgraced general are damaging the
armed forces' credibility.

7. FARC CALLS FOR LATIN AMERICAN SUMMIT
Colombia's FARC guerillas have called for a summit meeting with of 19 Latin
American and Caribbean nationse. In June 15 statement, FARC proposed that
the meeting resemble the May 23-24 Rio Group summit in Cusco, Peru, where
leaders called for UN pressure on the guerrillas to declare a ceasefire.
The FARC statement charged Colombian President Alvaro Uribe with misleading
the summit participants. Colombian foreign relations chief Carolina Barco
dismissed the idea of a summit with the FARC, saying peace talks should
occur "through the UN secretary general" and that a guerrilla cease-fire
would be a precondition. (El Colombiano, El Espectador, El Tiempo, Reuters,
June 17)

8. EX-GUERILLA PEACE ADVOCATE ASSASSINATED
Jenny Rocio Mendivelso Mejia, a prominent former guerrilla involved in
efforts to demobilize armed rebels, was murdered June 8 in Bogota, casting
doubt on government efforts to protect insurgents who lay down their arms.
Mendivelso, who left the FARC in late 2000, was shot twice in the face in
the middle of a busy cafe. Since last year, she had managed a shelter that
was part of a five-year-old government program for "the reinserted"--former
members of the leftist guerillas and rightist paramilitary groups. Arrested
for the murder were ex-FARC members Esteban Romero Topa and Hernan Dar’o
Canticus Mairongo, both residents of Mendivelso's shelter. Police said
Romero had confessed to the murder and had accused Mendivelso of pressuring
him to return to the FARC. A friend of Mendivelso's in Bogota who helps
former FARC members reintegrate into society called Romero's alleged
statement preposterous. "His justification for murdering her is simply not
true," said the friend, asked to remain anonymous. "She was committed to
the lives of those with whom she was working and that meant, very clearly,
not taking up arms again and not being an informant."

The "reinsertion" program's $14 million annual budget contributes to
housing, food and job training for the former combatants, as well as radio
announcements and leaflet drops over guerrilla-controlled territory. So far
this year, the program has enrolled 693 participants, almost three times
more than in all of 2002. This is the first year paramilitaries have been
allowed to enroll.

But the murder shows that the 18,000-strong FARC has infiltrated the
program and that deserters can't count on the government for security,
Mendivelso's friend said. "What chance do they have, knowing they can be
hunted down wherever they go?" He added: "This was an act of war. Jenny
hoped for a different future. With her death dies the hope of so many
others."

9. PRIVATIZED COLOMBIAN TELECOM TO LAY OFF THOUSANDS
Colombia's government announced June 11 that it had dissolved state-owned
National Telecommunications Company (Telecom), allowing the company to lay
off employees. Telecom president Alfonso Gomez said the company was being
reconstituted under the same name and would probably lay off half of its
10,000 workers. Telecom controls 40 percent of Colombia's fixed phone lines
and provides national and international long-distance service and Internet
options. It has been losing money since 1996, and lost $166 million last
year, President Alvaro Uribe's office said in a statement. Interior and
Justice Minister Fernando Londo–o Hoyos said other state enterprises may
face the same treatment. But labor leaders pledged protests and walkouts
against further privatization efforts. Jorge Lerma, president of the Union
of Communications Workers, said the government is "handing over the
country's economy to multinational corporations." Telecom headquarters in
downtown Bogota was shuttered and ringed with dozens of riot police and
army troops the day after the announcement, as some 100 workers gathered
outside to denounce the layoffs. (AP, El Espectador, June 13; El Tiempo,
June 12, 13)

10. NATIONAL STRIKE SLAMS PRIVATIZATION
About 600,000 Colombians marched in cities nationwide June 19 to defend
their jobs as President Alvaro Uribe pushes privatization plans. The
marches were part of a one-day strike prompted by the dissolution of
Telecom a week earlier and by government plans to sell off parts of the oil
company Ecopetrol and other state-owned enterprises. Riot police fired tear
gas and used water cannons on hundreds of workers protesting outside
Telecom's Bogota headquarters. Some protesters threw stones at police,
although no injuries or arrests were reported. The strike paralyzed
judicial, health and social security services, union officials said. It was
the third national strike since Uribe came to power last August on promises
that his policies would help the nation's economy. (AP, El Espectador, El
Tiempo, June 19, 20)

11. COLOMBIA LEADS WORLD IN MURDERED UNIONISTS
More union officials were assassinated in Colombia last year than in all
other nations combined, according to the new annual report of the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). The report finds
that 184 of 2002's 213 unionists murdered worldwide were Colombian. Eighty
Colombian union officials were forced to flee abroad, and there were 27
failed assassination attempts, 189 death threats, 9 "disappearances," 139
arbitrary arrests and 27 abductions. Colombia has long topped the ICFTU
list of shame, but the Brussels-based organization said the situation has
deteriorated markedly, with fewer unionized workers and little effort to
bring the killers--mostly paramilitaries--to justice. Many of the victims
are public-sector unionists who have taken strong stands against economic
liberalization and privatization. (BBC, June 10; El Tiempo, June 9, 10;
Financial Times, June 10; UK Guardian, June 11; Reuters, June 9).

12. INDIGENOUS MAYORAL CANDIDATE ASSASSINATED
On June 8, unknown assailants killed a mayoral candidate and three members
of his entourage in an ambush that also left four others wounded on the
road between the towns of Supia and Riosucio in the central department of
Caldas. All of the victims were members of the indigenous Embera-Chami
group. In the days before the attack, Gabriel Angel Cartagena, who had been
campaigning for Riosucio mayor, had been labeled a guerrilla sympathizer by
Riosucio officials and threatened by paramilitaries. The UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights office in Bogota said both the paramilitary
United Colombian Self-Defense (AUC) and the leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) have stepped up attacks on the Embera-Chami since
2001. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) denounced
"the silence of the government" in the face of the attacks. ONIC says that
this year armed groups have murdered 300 Indians nationwide. (El
Espectador, June 10; El Tiempo, June 10, 11).

13. POET GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE ASSASSINATED
On June 4 in Cucuta, Norte de Santander department, four gunmen
assassinated human rights activist, leftist political leader and poet Tirso
Velez, a former mayor of Tibu. His wife, Isabel Obregon Toscano, was
wounded in the attack. Velez was a member of the Patriotic Union and
candidate with the Polo Democratico for next October's elections for
governor of Norte de Santander. A recent poll showed his ahead of all other
candidates. (La Opinion, El Colombiano, El Tiempo, June 5)

14. REPORT: PANAMA VIOLATED REFUGEE RIGHTS
The Colombian government's official ombudsperson Eduardo Cifuentes issued a
report June 9 finding Panama violated the human rights of 109 Colombian
refugees in the Panamanian village of Punusa by forcibly repatriating them
April 21. The Panamanian police forced many of the refugees--including 65
children and many who can't read--to sign "voluntary" repatriation forms.
The removal separated families and left the refugees without most of their
possessions. The US Committee for Refugees had said the removal violated an
agreement between Panama and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees because
President Mireya Moscoso's government did not inform the commissioner of
the repatriation. Panamanian National Police chief Carlos Bares called
Cifuentes' finding "irresponsible." (AFP, EFE, June 9; El Tiempo, June 8)

15. COLOMBIAN COURT RULES AGAINST FUMIGATION
A recent decision by the Superior Administrative Court of Cundinamarca,
Colombia, released to the public June 25, declared that the aerial spraying
of herbicides to eradicate coca and poppy crops violates Colombians'
constitutionally-protected rights to a healthy environment, security and
public health. The court ordered that the aerial spraying of potent
glyphosate herbicides be suspended until the government complies with the
Environmental Management Plan for the eradication program, and conducts a
series of required studies to protect human health and the environment.

This verdict supplements earlier declarations by the Colombian
Constitutional Court and the State Council, which respectively ordered the
suspension of spraying in indigenous territories and full compliance with
the Environmental Management Plan approved by the Ministry of Environment.

According to Yamile Salinas of the Colombian Ombudsman's Office, "This
ruling recognizes the potential risks that the herbicide and the manner in
which it is being applied pose to human health and the environment in
Colombia." Added Anna Cederstav, staff scientist with the Interamerican
Association for Environmental Defense: "The US Congress has required the
State Department to evaluate environmental and health impacts of Plan
Colombia. This decision by a court in Colombia must be taken into account
by the US State Department."

The case was brought by the attorneys Hector Alberto Suarez Mej’a and
Claudia Sampedro Torres, who said "The Ministry of Health has not
authorized the spraying as it is being carried out, and the Ministry of the
Environment has called for an end to the spraying, as the required
technical studies do not exist."(El Espectador, Bogota, June 27)
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16. SPOOK CONTRACTORS BLUR WASHINGTON'S WAR ROLE
The US State Department paid 17 private companies at least $150 million for
military and police operations in Colombia last year, according to a
department report analyzed by the Bogota daily El Tiempo. The largest
contract fetched $79.2 million for DynCorp Aerospace Technologies, based in
Reston, VA. The company provided pilots and technical personnel for drug
eradication programs of Colombia's army and National Police. Some of the
pilots flew US-supplied Black Hawk and Huey helicopters that protect crop
dusters from guerrilla attacks. The contracts helped boost the company's
revenues by more than 15% in 2002, leading to its acquisition this March by
Computer Sciences Corp., based in El Segundo, CA.

The corporation winning the most State Department contracts in Colombia
last year was Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, MD. Lockheed, the world's
largest military company, scored eight contracts, including a $4.2 million
job to help Colombia's army operate transport planes.

Public relations services for Colombia's defense ministry generated $2.4
million for the DC-based Rendon Group, which has also overseen propaganda
campaigns in Iraq, Kuwait, Haiti, Kosovo and Zimbabwe for customers ranging
from the CIA to foreign governments.

Congress has capped the number of US troops and contract workers in
Colombia at 400 each. But lawmakers know little about the dcontracts. The
State Department report does not cover Defense Department contracts or
payments kept secret to protect "national security."

Critics point out that the work often seems slapdash. Military Professional
Resources Inc., based in Alexandria, Virginia, was hired to analyze
Colombia's war, but the documents it produced reportedly included few new
ideas and frequently spelled "Colombia" incorrectly. But this apparently
hasn't hurt the company's fortunes. MPRI spokesperson Ed Soyster, former
head of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, says the firm has grown
from eight employees in 1988 to more than 900 today.

US pilots flying military missions under contract in Colombia have had at
least three crashes this year, resulting in the kidnappings of three US
contractors by guerrillas. Five other contractors have been killed this
year. Brookings Institution fellow Peter W. Singer, author of "Corporate
Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry" (Cornell 2003),
says some of the crashes might be due to unqualified contractors working on
airplane maintenance. (American Prospect, May 1; Christian Science Monitor,
May 9; El Tiempo, June 18; Miami Herald, April 8)

17. JUDGE DENIES PRESSURE IN IRA-FARC CASE
A Colombian judge has denied defense accusations that he is under pressure
from the police and military to convict three accused Irish Republican
militants charged with teaching Colombian guerillas to make bombs. "There
is no pressure here. A judge's job is not to submit to pressure," Jairo
Acosta told Reuters after he adjourned the eight-month-old trial until July
28, when he will hear final defense and prosecution arguments. Acosta will
decide the verdicts and sentences for Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and
Martin McCauley. British and Colombian police say they are members of the
Irish Republican Army. Prosecutors are demanding sentences of up to 20
years in prison for the three, arrested in August 2001 as they tried to
leave Colombia using false passports. The Irishmen admitted spending time
in a FARC enclave but denied they were IRA members, saying they were in
Colombia to study now-defunct peace talks between the FARC and the
government. The enclave was part of a demilitarized zone ceded to the FARC
by former President Andres Pastrana to spur the talks.

An imprisoned former FARC member testified he saw Monaghan, Connolly and
McCauley instructing guerillas how to make bombs and mortars between
February 5 and 27, 2001. But defense witness Mike Ritchie submitted a video
to the court that shows Monaghan hosting a Dublin conference on peace and
reconciliation February 7, 2001. Laurence McKeown, who spent 16 years in
Northern Ireland's Maze prison, testified he saw Monaghan giving a speech
in Belfast on February 22, 2001. McKeown also submitted sworn affidavits
from people who had worked with Monaghan in Ireland on the dates the
prosecution says he was in Colombia. For reasons that remain unclear,
Acosta rejected the affidavits. He also refused to accept work records for
McCauley indicating he was in Ireland on the dates in question. The
Irishmen have refused to appear in court, saying the case is politically
motivated. They are currently being held in their sixth Colombian prison,
El Modelo, a facility near Bogota known for violence and inmate
mistreatment.

Natalie Kabasakalian, a human rights attorney who served as Amnesty
International country specialist for Ireland and Britain from 1999 to 2002,
said the defendants should be freed immediately: "The credible testimony
presented by defense witnesses establishes conclusively that prosecution
witnesses lied, and that the prosecutor suborned the perjurious testimony
and knowingly submitted unreliable documents into evidence." (Irish Times,
Reuters, June 16, 17)

18. PERU: CABINET RESIGNS AMID STRIKE WAVE
The entire cabinet of Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo resigned June 25,
amid a wave of strikes and unrest which threatens to bring down Toledo
himself. This follows the refusal of his party, the Peru Possible movement,
to approve a tax increase to finance a pay rise agreement with the
country's school teachers--unanimously endorsed by cabinet. Peru's 280,000
teachers ended a month-long strike on June 12, after their union, SUTEP,
finally accepted a deal negotiated with the government. Under the terms of
the agreement, teachers would get a $30 increase in their monthly salaries,
with further rises and improved working conditions to follow. (Green Left
Weekly, Australia, July 2)

Some 30,000 took part in a peaceful march June 3 in Lima, organized by the
General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP) to demand an end to the
30-day state of emergency President Alejandro Toledo decreed May 27. The
march was illegal under the state of emergency, but police did not attempt
to stop it. Similar marches took place in at least 20 other cities. In
Arequipa, the march coincided with a regional strike that shut down public
transport and universities. (La Republica, Lima, June 4, 5, and wire
services, via Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 8)

19. BOLIVIA: HUNGER STRIKES END--FOR NOW
A group of 26 Bolivian opposition legislators ended a hunger strike on June
4 following an agreement reached with legislators from the ruling
coalition. The hunger5 strike was initially called to demand an
extraordinary session of Congress to address pressing national issues.
After President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada agreed May 31 to call the session
for June 3, some indigenous legislators continued the strike to demand that
more issues be added to the sessions' agenda. (AP, June 4)

Also on June 4, some 50 survivors of political crimes committed by the
Bolivian dictatorship in the 1970s suspended a hunger strike they were
holding at a union office. The protesters pledged to petition the spwecial
session to take up a proposed law that would grant them compensation. (AP,
June 4)

On June 3, police intervened in a hunger strike by laid-off workers from
the Bolivian Mail Company, removing 20 children who were participating in
the action with their parents. (AP, June 3)

After two weeks on hunger strike, on June 2 a group of 21 unemployed miners
used brick and cement to seal themselves and 11 family members into the La
Paz offices of the Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers. The workers
are demanding they be rehired at their previous jobs in the Huanuni mine.
The family members participating in the action included four children
ranging in age from four to 12. The following day, the children were
released to a regional representative of the Permanent Assembly for Human
Rights of Bolivia. (El Diario, La Paz, June 3)

20. CHILE: FTAA SIGNED
On June 6, Chilean foreign minister Soledad Alvear and US trade
representative Robert Zoellick met in Miami to sign a trade pact which the
US has pushed as the next step towards the Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA), a hemispheric bloc the US hopes to have in place by 2005. The
US-Chile accord will lift tariffs on 85 products exported between the two
countries. (Reuters, June 6; Miami Herald, June 7)

Since the end of the Cold War, we have seen the United States government
resort to widely varied arguments and alibis to justify its wars and
foreign military operations, now that it can no longer invoke the famous
communist threat.

In Panama, it was to combat drug trafficking; in Iraq (1991) to liberate a
small invaded country; in Haiti to overthrow a dictatorship and restore
democracy; in Somalia to bring food to the hungry; in Kosovo to put an end
to genocide; in Afghanistan to combat terrorism; and in Iraq again (2003)
to eradicate weapons of mass destruction. The Pentagon and intelligence
agencies continue searching for new missions (new excuses) to justify their
budgets and their interventions in the internal affairs of other countries.

What if a country were invaded a country under the pretext of protecting
the environment? Will the United States armed forces be able to pose as
environmentalist titans?

The Southern Command and the Biological Corridor

In 2001, the Pentagon's Southern Command carried out maneuvers in El Peten,
the Guatemalan jungle region adjacent to the Mexican border. The maneuvers,
dubbed New Horizons, were of a strictly humanitarian nature, according to
the Southern Command's PR people. The troops were there to repair roads, to
give medical assistance, build schools and dig wells, assured the US
embassy.

But not all Guatemalans were impressed with Washington's supposed
generosity. Cesar Montes, secretary of the United Democratic Left, called
the maneuvers "the historical shame of the new millennium," and said that
the presence of 12,000 US troops in his country was "technically an
invasion."

New Horizons took place precisely as the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP) and the
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor were being formalized. The PPP is a
massive infrastructure plan for Mexico and Central America to maximize
exploitation of the natural resources and cheap labor of the region, while
the Corridor seeks to consolidate the region's protected natural areas in a
coordinated conservation program. The three initiatives may appear
unconnected, but some in the Mesoamerican isthmus suspect that they
represent new strategies and mechanisms of control.

Commenting on the handiwork of the Southern Command, the PPP and the
Biological Corridor in the Mexican daily La Jornada (Feb. 18, 2002), Juan
Antonio Zuniga wrote that "the interests of the United States armed forces
and the World Bank appear to coincide with the proposition of the
administration of [Mexican] President Vicente Fox to carry globalization to
the southeast region of Mexico with arguments including those which contain
ecological elements."

The Biological Corridor "refers to the investment of capital for
'conservation and sustainable use' of the natural resources," says
economist Gian Carlo Delgado Ramos of the Interdisciplinary Research Center
of the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM). "It is a scheme in
which 'sustainable use' is understood as the exploitation of strategic
resources (biodiversity, forests, water, etc.) by a select corporate group,
foreign in its majority."

Ecology and National Security

El Peten is adjacent to the Lacandon Selva, the rainforest region of the
Mexican state of Chiapas, stronghold of the Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN). Since last year, various sectors aligned with the neoliberal
strategy of Fox and Bush have been asking the Mexican government to
intervene in the Lacandon Selva to put an end to deforestation.

There is no doubt that deforestation is an urgent problem in the Lacandon.
Two centuries ago, the selva had two million hectares, and has since been
reduced to 500,000 due to the surge in such activities as logging and the
establishment of cattle ranches.

In this besieged jungle is the Montes Azules nature reserve (331,200
hectares), established by the government in 1978 and recognized by the
United Nation Environment Program. Within the reserve, 20,000 hectares have
already been destroyed, and another 20,000 are in the process of
destruction, according to the IPS news agency.

In December 2001 Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, ex-national security chief and
Mexico's representative on the UN Security Council, declared that military
force should be used agaist "environmental terrorism." Later, in March
2002, La Jornada reported that the environmental group Conservation
International (CI) had asked the Mexican government to expel the EZLN from
the Lacandon Selva.

In an interview last month with the Puerto Rican weekly Claridad, Ignacio
March, director of CI's Mexico projects, denied the accusations of La
Jornada, but affirmed that actions must be taken to put an end to invasions
of Montes Azules.

Since Fox assumed the presidency in December 2000, ten communities of
"invaders" have been established in Montes Azules, bringing the total of
["illegal"] communities to 45, with a population of 35,000.

These communities are made up of Indians and landless peasants from other
parts of Chiapas, fleeing hunger and the violence of the paramilitaries.
The majority are sympathizers of the EZLN, while others are affiliated with
ARIC-Independiente, a grassroots organization which, in contrast to the
Zapatistas, are not armed.

Who are the Real Invaders?

Progressive sectors in Mexico see the government's intention to evict
"invaders" from the Lacandon as a charade of neoliberalism and
counterinsurgency, with the real intention to depopulate the area to
exploit its natural resources in concordance with the PPP and Biological
Corridor.

Delgado Ramos claims that the government's real agenda in the Lacandona is
neither humanitarian nor environmental, but "to facilitate the intensive
plunder, privatization and exploitation of the natural, material and human
assets of the region by multinationals involved in bio-genetics,
agribusiness, [trade] in water and electricity/petroleum, and in minerals,
as well as eco-tourism projects by the multinational hotel industry, which
has been strongly promoted since the Biological Corridor."

The US-based reporter Bill Weinberg, who recently visited "invader"
communities, was amazed at the ecological and political sophistication of
these supposed environmental delinquents.

In his visit to the community Nuevo San Gregorio, founded twenty years ago,
he found that they have a program of sustainable agriculture, that they
have agreed not to cut the forest, and only use their own traditional corn
seeds, not those sold by agribusiness. Far from being ignorant provincials,
the villagers spoke with erudition and eloquence about their constitutional
rights, of the relevant conventions of the International Labor
Organization, and the San Andres Accords, the peace agreement signed by the
EZLN and the government.

This past April, the 32 communities threatened with eviction presented a
formal complaint before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

Neither the "invader" communities nor the EZLN are willing to leave the
selva. Subcomandante Marcos announced last December 29 that the Zapatistas
will resist any attempt at eviction, and that they will not be expelled
peacefully.

Three months after these words, just on the other side of the border, a
small detachment of Yankee military troops participated in new maneuvers
with their Mexican counterparts along the Guatemalan border with the
supposed end of fortifying security and vigilance... just when the war
against Iraq was launched.

2. MEXICO-COLOMBIA ANTI-TERROR AXIS
Mexican Exterior Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista met in Bogota May
11 with his Colombian counterpart Carolina Barco to sign a pact on
bilateral cooperation to combat terrorism, pledging to crack down on the
illegal arms trade between their two countries. The move was seen as a step
towards the two nations ratifying the Inter-American Convention against
Terrorism. (EFE, May 11)
[top]

3. TARAHUMARA ACTIVISTS RELEASED FROM PRISON; ONE REMAINS
Progress is reported in the case of imprisoned Tarahumara Indian activist
Isidro Baldenegro in Mexico's conflicted Chihuahua state. On May 3, 2003,
Isidro's brother, Trinidad Baldenegro Lopez, and half-brother, Gabriel
Palma Lopez, were released from jail after being declared innocent of all
charges. They had been arrested in December 2002, in the remote mountain
hamlet of Coloradas de la Virgen, and charged with weapons possession. The
local environmental group Sierra Madre Alliance believes their arrests were
intended to silence community protests against illegal logging on
Tarahumara lands. Their release may indicate a willingness on the part of
the state to re-examine the charges against Isidro, who remains in prison.

But the Sierra Madre Alliance reports that activists from Coloradas are
still being threatened with reprisals for speaking out against the logging
and in defense of Isidro. Josefa Chaparro, a community leader who recently
spoke against logging and repression at a conference in Austin, TX, and who
participated in a blockade of logging trucks earlier this year, was
interrogated in her home by police officials in an attempt to force her to
reveal the names of other participants in the blockade. She refused to come
to the police station to make a formal declaration, despite intimidation.

This is only the most recent of a long series of threats and attacks
against the Tarahumara of Coloradas de la Virgen. On May 5, Rodolfo
Stavenhagen, UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, met privately
with a delegation from Coloradas in the town of Creel. This meeting was
part of a two-week visit to indigenous communities throughout Mexico. With
Stavenhagen were Diego Ituralde, of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, and Pablo Espiniella, of the UN Human Rights Commission.
Representatives of local environmental groups Fuerza Ambiental and Sierra
Madre Alliance were also present at the meeting, along with Isidro's
attorney, Fausto Salgado. The delegation from Coloradas included Trinidad
and Gabriel and traditional village elders, who traveled two days to reach
Creel. The Tarahumara leaders asked Stavenhagen to investigate, and he
promised to include their information in his report. He said that the
Sierra Tarahumara was considered one of fourteen "red light" zones for
agrarian and indigenous rights problems in the country. (Sierra Madre
Alliance press release, May 4)

For more information, or to send tax deductible contributions to the Isidro
Baldenegro defense fund, write:

4. ERPI GUERILLAS DENY KIDNAPPINGS
On May 27, after six accused members of the Revolutionary Army of the
Insurgent People (ERPI) were arrested in Ayutla village in Guerrero state
and charged with kidnapping, the ERPI Guerreo State Committee issued a
communique denying that the suspects were members of the group, and
charging that their confessions "were obviously forced out of them through
the ever-present practice of torture." Describing the suspects as including
"elderly people 70 or 80 years old," ERPI cast doubt on the kidnapping
charges. The rebels called the arrests part of an effort to intimidate
local activists, and noted that local organizations not connected to
guerilla groups had reported "a new outbreak of police and military
violence in the region."

1. WHITE HOUSE CENSORS EPA DOCUMENT ON GLOBAL WARMING
The New York Times reported June 16 that the White House harshly edited a
draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency on the state of the
environment, with a long passage on global warming whittled to a few
noncommittal paragraphs. The report, commissioned in 2001 by EPA chief
Christie Whitman, was intended to provide the first comprehensive review of
global environmental problems. The report was scheduled to be issued just
as Whitman is stepping down.

Drafts of the climate section, with changes sought by the White House, were
given to the Times by a former EPA. official, along with earlier drafts and
an internal memorandum in which some officials protested the changes. Two
agency officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the documents
were authentic.

The editing eliminated references to many studies finding that warming is
at least partly caused by fossil fuel emissions. Among the deletions were
conclusions about the likely human causes of warming from a 2001 White
House-commissioned report by the National Research Council. White House
officials also deleted a reference to a 1999 study showing that global
temperatures had risen sharply in the previous decade compared with the
last 1,000 years. In its place, administration officials added a reference
to a new study, partly financed by the American Petroleum Institute,
questioning that conclusion. After discussions with White House officials,
EPA staff said they opted to delete the entire discussion to avoid
criticism that they were selectively filtering science to suit policy. An
April 29 memo circulated among EPA staff said that after the changes, the
section on climate "no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on
climate change." Another memo warned of "severe criticism from the science
and environmental communities for poorly representing the science." Whitman
said she was "perfectly comfortable" with the edited version.

The changes were mainly made by the White House Council on Environmental
Quality, although the Office of Management and Budget was also involved,
EPA officials told the Times. It is the second time in a year that the
White House has sought to play down global warming in official documents.
Last September, an annual EPA report on air pollution that for six years
had contained a section on climate was released without one--a decision
made by Bush administration EPA appointees with White House approval. Like
the September report, the new report says the issues will be dealt with
later by a forthcoming Bush administration climate research plan.

In the "Global Issues" section of the draft returned by the White House to
EPA in April, an introductory sentence reading, "Climate change has global
consequences for human health and the environment" was cut and replaced
with a paragraph that starts: "The complexity of the Earth system and the
interconnections among its components make it a scientific challenge to
document change, diagnose its causes, and develop useful projections of how
natural variability and human actions may affect the global environment in
the future."

1. ARRESTED AL-QAEDA SUSPECT WAS FBI INFORMANT
An accused al-Qaeda operative arrested in an alleged plot to blow up the
Brooklyn Bridge was first detained in March--and had been used by the FBI
for months as a double agent. US authorities waited until mid-June to
announce a plea bargain struck with Iyman Faris, a Pakistani-born truck
driver allegedly ordered to scout out terror targets, including the New
York landmark. They did not initially say that Faris had been under FBI
control for months. But Justice Department officials told Time magazine
that Faris was secretly detained about two weeks after the capture on March
1 in Pakistan of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's supposed chief of
operations. Installed in a safe house in Virginia, Faris reportedly sent
messages to his al-Qaeda handlers by mobile phone and email. "He was
sitting in the safe house making calls for us. It was a huge triumph," a
senior Bush administration official told Time. After pleading guilty to
offering material support to al-Qa'eda, Faris will be sentenced in August.
He faces up to 20 years in prison. (UK Telegraph, June 23)
[top]

2. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS BAN ON INDEFINITE DETENTION
On June 23, without comment, the Supreme Court declined to review a ruling
barring the government from indefinitely detaining immigrants who are
caught entering the US and whose home countries refuse to take them back.
In Snyder v. Rosales-Garcia, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati had ruled March 5 that there must be a reasonable time limit on
detention. The high court refused to challenge the 6th Circuit's view that
"excludable aliens--like all aliens--are clearly protected by the due
process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments." The case involves
Cuban nationals Mario Rosales-Garcia and Reynero Carballo, who were deemed
excludable when they reached the US in 1980 with 125,000 other Cubans in
the Mariel boatlift. Rosales-Garcia and Carballo were released on bond and
served sentences after committing crimes in the US; one has spent four and
another 15 years in immigration custody. They were represented by the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In another case, Ashcroft v. Singh, the Court also rejected a Bush
administration appeal, upholding a decision by the 9th US Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco. That ruling allowed Indian national Ranjit Singh
to challenge a deportation order which was issued because he was confused
about the time of his deportation hearing and arrived two hours late. (AP,
June 23; Legal Times, June 16)

3. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS SECRET DETENTIONS
On May 27, the Supreme Court declined, without comment, to review an appeal
of a lawsuit challenging closed hearings for immigration cases deemed to be
of "special interest" to terrorism investigations. The New Jersey Law
Journal and the North Jersey Media Group brought the suit in March 2002. US
Justice Department Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the Supreme Court
that most of the secret deportation hearings are already complete: of 766
detainees designated as special interest, 505 have been deported, according
to Olson. The case is North Jersey Media Group v. Ashcroft, 02-1289.

The Supreme Court's decision lets stand an Oct. 8 ruling by the 3rd US
Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, upholding the government's
secrecy policy. The Supreme Court has not reviewed an opposite ruling in a
similar case by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which
found secret immigration hearings unconstitutional. (AP, May 27; St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, May 28)

4. APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS SECRET DETENTIONS
On June 17, a panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia ruled 2-1 that the Justice Department does not have to reveal the
identity of foreign nationals detained during investigations into the 9-11
attacks. Over 20 civil liberties and other groups had invoked the First
Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a lawsuit seeking
the names of detainees, their lawyers, dates they were arrested and reasons
for their detention. Last Aug. 2, US District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered
the government to release the names, but delayed enforcing her order to
give the government time to appeal.

In his dissent, Judge David Tatel blasted his colleagues' "uncritical
deference to the government's vague, poorly explained arguments for
withholding broad categories of information about the detainees...." The
plaintiffs, led by the Center for National Security Studies, plan to appeal
the case. (AP, Reuters, BBC, Human Rights Watch, June 17)